Mic Drop • Mute Manager 4+

Does not work for all usb mics

I have an external usb microphone. After setting up Mic Drop for PTT, I thought I was safe leaving my mic unmuted in my video meeting. As I was screaming at my kids, everyone at work heard me even though the mic drop icon showed as muted.

After talking to the developer, I learned that some obscure USB mics or audio interfaces do things very atypically and just aren't compatible with Mic Drop. They have a list of supported hardware, which I recommend checking out first if you're using a USB mic.
Either way, the developer was prompt to respond and help clear things up.

I give 4 stars for the superb support in getting issues figured out!

Developer Response ,

Oh no, we're so sorry to hear that!

Could you please let us know the USB microphone you use that couldn't be muted (email us at micdrop@octopusthink.com)? We maintain a list of these on our website (https://getmicdrop.com/help/hardware-issues), but we also display a notification on-screen when we detect a mic that cannot be muted by Mic Drop. Note this is a driver issue with the device and not something we can fix, but we do display a notice that the device can't be muted. If that notification didn't appear your device might be falsely reporting that it's compatible with macOS's system-level mute, so we'd love to know your device so we can warn other users about it.

We also have a workaround to allow USB mics to be muted using Loopback on our website.

Great App

I've been using this with Zoom and MS Teams for work-related conference calls, and I also support committee members who use Zoom for public meetings.

Even though Zoom and Teams both have built-in mute toggle, and Zoom also has built-in Push-To-Talk (PTT), I prefer using mic drop as my microphone control because I can use the same key combos to mute in different apps, and I always know for sure when I am muted because the status is shown in the macOS menu bar. While apps like Zoom and Teams do have mute indicators, having the status in the macOS menu bar works better for me because it's always visible, regardless of what is foremost on my display. The committee members that I support overwhelmingly prefer the Status Window in mic drop to know when they are toggled on or off.

When I attend a meeting where I expect to speak a lot, I use PTT with a key combination that I prefer. When I attend a meeting where I am mostly silent, I toggle mute using the icon in the macOS menu bar. Having that menu bar icon status gives me assurance that my background noises won't be heard on the conference.

Just What I Needed!

As a consultant, I regularly switch between web conference services (Webex, Teams, Zoom, etc.) based on whether it's me or my customers setting it up. Some services have a mute shortcut, some don't. Most you have to be in the app to do it, and I'm regularly using other apps during the call so their shortcuts don’t work. This covers all bases and then some!

My only request would be the option to have an audio feedback tone when muting or unmuting so that I know with confidence I am muted without leaving a full-screen app or Workspace and conversely I know I’ve unmuted to speak.

Developer Response ,

Thanks for taking the time to write a review! We have notifications on our roadmap, so look out for them in a future release! :-)