Keyboard control, use volume control keys on Mac OS disable when nothing is playing/no output device locked

Studio
1

Hello,

Happy Audirvana Studio user here.
Love the product and can’t image my life without it.
I do have a sizeable (around 90k tracks) local library and often add more to it. I also like to listen to music when I’m in the moment/right away so Audirvana is often open without playing anything on one of my mac’s many desktops.
What I find a bit annoying is that when Audirvana is dormant (not playing anything on one of my desktops) it still takes over the keyboard media keys. I love using the feature whenever I’m actively listening to music as it spares me reaching it out for my dac or amp but it’s a pain in one place to constantly turn this feature on and off as long as I want to keep Audirvana open.

Would be swell if you could make it so media keys control is disabled when there’s no active playback in the app, or at least creating a toggle to allow for this automation.

Cheers,
Stan

2

Hi @StanK,

You mean you have this behavior when you have Audirvāna open and you are using a different app like Safari?

1 Like
3

Hi Antoine,

thank you for the prompt response!

I mean when Audirvana is open but not playing anything, if I play audio in any other app or just simply want to control volume of any audio output device, Audirvana’s ‘media keys’ setting will be intercepting the inputs from those keys.

Cheers,
Stan

4

And your output is the same between Audirvāna and this other app?

5

Not necessarily.
For example, I can have my audio interface (scarlett, in this case) selected as output in Audirvana, while my system audio output is MacBook Pro Speakers, and even when Audirvana is not playing anything (output device is not locked) the media volume control keys are changing the output in Audirvana and have no effect on the system output.

6

Hi @StanK,

Your MacBook is with a touch bar or with button for changing volume?

I don’t have this behavior with the touch bar.

7

i have macbook pro m1. these come without touchbars.
i can replicate this behaviour on my macbook air m1 as well.

8

Hi @StanK,

I talked about this with the team since they have the M1 as you have and they do have this issue.

They are currently working on it and would like to know more about the apps you are using when you have the issue?

9

hi Antoine,

Sure, I use a bunch of apps on my mac but I dare say its not app specific. Without knowing the intricacies of the Mac OS, I assume Audirvana takes control/intercepts the input from the dedicated media keys on your mac’s keyboard when respective toggles under “Appearance/Keyboard Control/” are on.
My suggestion is that those toggles should only actually work when you have anything playing through Audirvana, i.e. have an output device locked.
however, when the playback is completely stopped and there are no output devices locked by Audirvana, I suggest that the toggles under “Appearance/Keyboard Control/”, even if turned on, should not actually intercept the keyboard input.
The current behaviour results in your mac os’s system output (audio) not recognizing any input from the keyboard if Audirvana is running in the background.
Hope this clarifies it.

Also, though this might be considered as a minor comfort-of-life enhancement to the product, I think it can be quite welcome for those with larger local libraries since you find yourself having Audirvana running almost all the time to allow it synchronize and scan all the locations.

cheers,
Stan

10

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.