Better Control Your Windows Volume Settings With EarTrumpet
Windows: Honestly, Windows 10’s volume controls aren’t all that special. You can set the default volume for the speakers you are listening to; you can change your default speakers (for example, from crappy built-in speakers on your monitor to awesome headphones); and it’s all.
Sure, Windows 10 comes with more advanced audio controls if you want to fine-tune your audio settings, but they’re a little buried. Given that many of us tend to be lazy with our computers, myself included, we probably don’t think, “Hey, I have to manually assign sounds for this app to my headphones” when trying out a new game or program. So this feature is likely to go unused, if not completely forgotten.
The recently updated Windows app EarTrumpet – now in version 2.0 – brings the two worlds together and is a must-have replacement for the sound controls on the Windows taskbar. With it, you will get a more beautiful view of the sound coming from your various audio devices. If you want to get creative, you can also easily reassign different apps to different audio outputs so that your Spotify always works from your main speakers and your favorite game pours out of your headphones (if it works).
Getting started with EarTrumpet
Since the app is downloaded from the Windows Store , it’s easy to install. Once launched, look for the sound icon in the Windows 10 notification area – in the lower-right corner of your screen, unless you’ve moved the taskbar to the top or side of your desktop. Don’t click on the regular audio icon, which will also be there. Hover over the audio icons until you find the one you want for EarTrumpet, and then click on it.
Boom! Each of your audio outputs fills the side of your Windows desktop along with every application that can use each audio output to create noise in your path. For example, if you are currently streaming music or listening to YouTube videos, you will see small indicators below the app to show what is coming out of the left and right mix. Ltd. Ahhh.
Right-click the application and then click the icon that looks like two arrows pointing in the opposite direction to reassign the application to a different audio output. This works well in some apps (like Spotify), but not so well in others (Steam games). In some cases, you may need to restart the application for the new sound settings to take effect. In others, you may not be lucky. Nothing wrong. Audio can be finicky.
Even if that last bit doesn’t work, or is too annoying to tweak all of your apps (I’d prefer some sort of drag and drop functionality), EarTrumpet at least gives you an easy way to manage volumes on each -app basis. And if you just want to switch everything from one audio output to another (for example, from speakers to headphones), right-click on the EarTrumpet icon and select new output. Light.
Ditching the old Windows volume icon
If you’re selling through EarTrumpet, you’ll need to do a little more tweaking to make it look and feel like the old Windows 10 volume icon, and ditch the latter for good. Right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar Settings. Scroll down to the “Notification area” section and click “Turn system icons on or off.” On the screen that appears, deselect the option for Windows 10 Volume Controls and click the back arrow in the upper left corner.
Then click “Choose which icons to display on the taskbar.” On this screen – assuming EarTrumpet is currently running – find the app and set the toggle to On, which will pin it to the notification area.