Pushing Pause_
Keep your music playing while editing. Your timeline audio always wins.
macOS app for automatic audio ducking. When your editor plays back, everything else gets out of the way. When it stops, your music comes back.
One-time purchase. No subscription. No account.
The qualm
You hit play. Your music drowns the edit. You pause, find Spotify, lower the volume, switch back, hit play again.
Every editor knows this friction. You listen to music while cutting. The moment you need to hear your timeline, you have to manually deal with everything else. It breaks flow. It wastes time. It happens dozens of times a day.
Pushing Pause_ fixes it. Permanently. Set it up once, then forget it exists.
Setup
Under five minutes. Four steps.
01
Install and open
Download, drag to Applications, launch. Grant audio access when prompted. That is the only permission it needs.
02
Choose your master apps
Pick the apps whose audio should take priority. DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Logic, Ableton — any .app on your Mac. Add as many as you need.
03
Set the threshold
How loud does the master app need to be before everything else ducks? Default is -40dB with a live peak meter so you can see exactly where the line sits. Most people never change it.
04
Forget it exists
Done. Hit play in your editor — music ducks. Stop playback — music returns. Anti-flicker prevents rapid toggling when you scrub. It just works, silently, in the background.
Who it is for
Anyone who edits with music on.
Video editors
Cutting in Resolve, Premiere, or FCP while listening to Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube. The primary use case.
Colourists
Grading in Resolve with music running. Need to hear reference audio without manually managing volume every time.
Motion designers
Working in After Effects or Motion. Previewing audio-synced animation without background audio competing.
Music producers
Running Logic or Ableton as master. Reference tracks, YouTube tutorials, and browser audio duck automatically.
Podcasters
Editing in any DAW. Background audio stays out of the way during playback review without touching a thing.
Anyone on macOS
Any app can be a master. Any workflow where one app's audio should take priority over everything else.
Features
What you get.
Unlimited master apps
No curated list. Any .app on your Mac can be a master. Add via dropdown or Finder picker. Multiple masters can play simultaneously without ducking each other.
Per-process audio monitoring
Taps into individual app audio streams via CoreAudio. Ducks non-master apps independently. Your master app audio is never touched.
Configurable ducking gain
Two gain controls: normal state and ducked state. Default ducked gain is full mute, but raise it if you want quiet background music while your timeline plays.
Anti-flicker hold
0.3s debounce prevents rapid duck/restore cycles during scrubbing. Toggle it off if you want instant response. Adjustable hold duration.
Live peak meter
Real-time peak level display with threshold line. See exactly when ducking engages. Status badge shows "Ducking Active" or "Not Ducking" at a glance.
Output device aware
Automatically rebuilds audio taps when you switch between headphones, speakers, or audio interfaces. No manual intervention.
Volume ducking, not pausing
Music continues playing while ducked — it is just silent. When your editor stops, playback resumes exactly where it is. No skipped beats. No re-sync.
Privacy
Offline. Always.
Pushing Pause_ runs entirely on your Mac. It does not upload usage metrics, audio information, file names, or system activity. No accounts. No cloud sync. No telemetry. No analytics.
Safe for editors working under NDA or on confidential projects. Nothing leaves your machine.
Under the hood
Native. Lightweight. Fast.
Swift and SwiftUI
Pure native macOS app. No Electron, no web views, no cross-platform wrappers. Feels like it belongs on your Mac because it does.
CoreAudio and AVFoundation
Per-process audio taps using system-level APIs. Peak detection via Accelerate framework. No perceptible latency added to master audio.
Low resource footprint
Designed for always-on operation. Low CPU usage and minimal memory. Runs quietly alongside your heaviest editing sessions.
Edge case handling
Master app crashes mid-duck — instant unduck. New audio sources appear while ducked — automatically ducked. Output device switches — taps rebuild seamlessly.
Requirements
What you need.
OS
macOS 13 Ventura
Or later. Apple Silicon and Intel.
Permission
Audio access
One prompt on first launch. That is it.
Size
Under 10 MB
Downloads in seconds. No dependencies.
$50. Once. Done_
One-time purchase. No subscription. No account required. Download, install, forget it exists.
Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later. Apple Silicon and Intel supported.