If your Apogee's Input Gain or Output Volume are changing on their own, this may be caused by a 3rd-party program like Skype, Facebook Live, Google Hangouts, and others.
How is this possible? All modern Apogee interfaces have input gain and output volume that are digitally controlled rather than an analog potentiometer that must be physically turned. The advantages of digital control are many:
- Improved Sound Quality (turning the gain doesn't cause a "scratchy" sound, and enables the advantages of our Step-Gain preamp technology)
- Settings can be saved to presets that can be recalled later.
- You can also control these settings directly from recording applications like Logic or Garageband's Device Control feature instead of having to open a separate app.
Unfortunately, other applications are also able to take over these controls in an undesirable way. Most often the culprit are Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) applications like Skype or GoToMeeting, or video conferencing apps like Google Hangouts, as well as Video Podcast features like Facebook Live. These apps want to optimize the sound as much as possible for phone & video calls or recordings. This feature is usually called "Auto-Gain Control" and is actually pretty great when the computer's built-in microphone and speakers are being used. However it's very disruptive when you want to manually set the levels of your own interface and have them stay there. Sadly, many of these applications do not provide you with the ability to turn off this Auto-Gain Control feature. There are many applications out there, but there are a few that are most popular that we'll briefly cover:
SKYPE: Can disable auto-gain ????
The more recent versions of this app provide the ability to turn off AutoGain Control. The example below shows the Mac version. The iOS app is restricted to only using the built-in iPad/iPhone mic and can't use external sound cards.
Google Hangouts: Cannot turn off auto-gain ????
On a Mac, Hangouts typically needs a Chrome or Safari browser extension installed. None of the settings menus provide an option to turn off auto-gain. Even worse: even if you are not in a hangouts session but your web browser is open, the hangouts plugin will still be active and can adjust the gain on you. If you are in a DAW or recording program at the time, this is obviously bad. Turn off or disable the extension to avoid this:
Safari Browser:
Chrome Browser:
Facebook Live: Cannot turn off auto-gain ????
The Facebook Live interface only allows you to select your interface, there are no audio options beyond that so if it is adjusting your Apogee's levels there is no way to turn it off.
Are there any alternatives?
Yes. At least on a Mac or PC there are 3rd-party programs that stream through Facebook Live, or Twitch, or YouTube, and has extensive audio features. Apogee does our Facebook Live streams using an open source broadcaster software called OBS. There are many other such programs out there so look around to find one that serves your needs. On an iPad or iPhone, you are limited by the capabilities of the iOS operating system and the app you are using, so there are usually even fewer options to get around the auto-gain problem. The ability to disable Auto-Gain should be added to these apps by the developer. Please contact the maker of the program or iOS app you use and ask them to add this feature in a future update. Getting many requests from customers is the only way developers will know there is a demand for this. *If you know of a better way around this problem, please contact our Support Team and let us know!
Chrome Extension suggested by Apogee Customer:
An Apogee customer suggested this Chrome browser extension, reporting it worked for them:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable-automatic-gain-co/clpapnmmlmecieknddelobgikompchkk