When creating either an Aggregate Device or a Multi-Output Device in Audio MIDI Setup and setting it as the default audio output device, the volume control is greyed out and locked at maximum intensity. Why is that and how can it be bypassed?
Multi-output MIDI device disables volume control
audiomidisound-volume
Related Solutions
A multi-output device allows you to mirror audio output to multiple devices at the same time.
An aggregate device allows you to tie multiple devices together to appear as one, single, device with more I/O than any one single device has.
Aggregation has a lot of applications in music production where you might want to use more than one audio capture device at the same time from Logic Audio or GarageBand. To do this, you aggregate devices in to one new, virtual device and access the single device from within Logic.
Some examples might help illustrate the difference.
Example 1: Multi-Output Device
Let's say I wanted to play music in iTunes and have the audio go to my iMac's built-in speakers and my AppleTV via AirPlay at the same time. How would I do this? I would create a new, multi-output device. Assign both my Built-In Output and AirPlay sources to this device and then select it as my output device for audio on my iMac.
Now audio played in iTunes goes to both my iMac's speakers and my AppleTV at the same time -- it's mirrored.
Example 1: Aggregate Device
Let's say I wanted to record 4 streams of mono audio at the same time but all I have are two audio input devices that each have 2 mono streams on them (they're basically stereo capture devices). I could create an aggregate device out of the two devices (assuming their drivers support aggregation in OS X) and use this new, aggregate device in GarageBand or Logic and now, instead of seeing 2 channels of input, I'd see 4 channels of input and the devices would function as one, bigger "virtual device".
It works in a similar fashion for their outputs. They all act as independent outputs on one virtual device.
The only way to do this without a third party app is directly from iTunes. In the top area of the iTunes windows you'll see the AirPlay icon. Click on that and then select Multiple to select multiple AirPlay targets to stream the audio (and/or video) to at the same time:
To stream to multiple AirPlay devices from outside iTunes you'll need to invest in some third party applications. The best approach I know of uses Airfoil for Mac from Rogue Amoeba. Airfoil allows you to send audio to many destinations from your Mac. From their page:
Multiple Outputs At Once You can send audio to multiple outputs around your house, all in sync.
It's an excellent app from an excellent Mac-centric development company and for $25 you get an excellent solution to your problem.
Best Answer
Whilst I'm not certain why the single volume control in the Sound preference pane is greyed out (or whether that behaviour can be changed), the only way I found to allow me to change the volume at all was to manually adjust the "Master" volume slider for each device in the aggregate or multi-output device.