mic-control

Automatic microphone volume control for macOS calls and meetings.

What It Does

• Monitors and maintains mic input level during calls
• Two-tier call detection: quick checks between full audio sampling passes
• Rich terminal output with live status
• Low resource usage, runs in background
• Native macOS integration via osascript

Quick Start

Install mic-control

Install with pipx (recommended):

pipx install mic-control

Or with pip in a virtual environment:

pip install mic-control

Tip: pipx is recommended for global CLI tools as it provides isolated environments.

Or with Poetry (for development):

git clone https://github.com/bulletinmybeard/mic-control.git
cd mic-control
poetry install

Run mic-control

# Start with default settings
mic-control

# Custom target volume
mic-control --target-volume 70

# Use a specific input device (index or name)
mic-control --input-device 1

# Verbose debug output
mic-control --verbose

# Run in background
mic-control &

CLI Commands

Example Output

╭──────────────────────────────────────────╮
│        mic-control v2.1.0                │
│                                          │
│  Target Volume: 80                       │
│  Active Interval: 5s                     │
│  Idle Interval: 15s                      │
│  Call Interval: 30s                      │
│  Input Device: system default            │
│  Log Path: /Users/.../.mic-control/...   │
╰──────────────────────────────────────────╯

⠋ Detecting call activity...
-> Not in call (detection took 5.2s)

⠋ Confirming call activity...
-> In call (detection took 5.1s)
ℹ Adjusting volume: 50 -> 80

^C
Shutting down gracefully...
Microphone controller stopped

How Call Detection Works

mic-control uses a two-tier strategy:

1. Full detection: runs every --call-interval seconds (default 30s). It records five 1-second audio samples and treats persistent activity as a call.
2. Quick checks: run between full passes. When idle, a short sample can trigger a faster confirmation pass. When in a call, consecutive inactive quick checks end call mode without waiting for the next full pass.

This keeps volume adjustments responsive while limiting CPU and microphone usage.

Limitations

• macOS only: volume control relies on osascript.
• Audio-based detection: music, notifications, or background noise can be mistaken for a call. Quiet calls may be missed.
• Default input device: unless --input-device is set, detection uses the system default microphone. Meeting apps that use a different device may not be detected reliably.
• Microphone permission: macOS must grant microphone access. Permission or device errors are logged and treated as "no activity" during quick checks.

List available input devices from Python:

poetry run python -c "import sounddevice as sd; print(sd.query_devices())"

Requirements

• macOS 10.0+
• Python 3.12+

Troubleshooting

If the script can't access your mic

• Check the mic permissions in your System Preferences
• Make sure no other app or script is exclusively using the mic
• Try --input-device with the device your meeting app uses

If volume adjustments don't work

• Verify you have permission to run osascript

For logging issues

• Ensure the log file location has the correct write permissions
• Check available disk space

Links

• Changelog

License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.