Talk over the music.
Lowers one Windows app when another one makes sound, then brings it back.
Download · How it works · Settings · Build
Pick sources (Discord, your browser) and one target (Spotify). When any source plays audio, the target's volume drops to the level you set. When the sources go quiet, it fades back up. Attack, hold and release times and curves shape the ramp.
It drives the per-app slider in the Windows Volume Mixer, so nothing is hidden and nothing inside the target app is touched.
- Download
DuckDuck.exefrom the latest release. - Run it. There is no installer and nothing else to install.
Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The exe is self-contained (it carries its own .NET runtime, which is why it's large).
SmartScreen may warn the first time because the exe isn't code-signed. Click More info → Run anyway, or build it yourself from source.
- add app under SOURCES lists every app that currently has an audio session. Pick the ones that should trigger ducking. Each source gets its own Trigger at slider and a tick on its level meter, so you can watch the peak cross it.
- Microphone in the same list is whichever mic an app is recording from right now, so you can duck when you talk. It is live during a call and shown idle otherwise: DuckDuck never opens a mic itself, because that would switch a Bluetooth headset into its low-quality hands-free profile. It is the raw level before Discord's noise gate, so raise its Trigger at until keyboard noise stays under the tick.
- pick app under TARGET chooses the app to duck.
- Don't see your app? Play something in it, then reopen the picker. Windows only creates an audio session once an app has made sound.
- Closing the window keeps DuckDuck running in the tray. Left-click the tray icon to bring it back. Right-click for Enabled, Show and Exit.
Every 20 ms the engine reads the peak level of what each source process is rendering (Windows process loopback, so Discord's own tap on the output mix does not count other apps' audio as Discord). If any source is above its threshold, the target is active:
Idle ──active──▶ Attack ──done──▶ Ducked ──quiet for Hold ms──▶ Release ──done──▶ Idle
▲ │
└─────────────── active again ──────────────────┘
- Attack ramps the target from its current volume down to Duck to over the attack time, using the attack curve. It always finishes, even if the source stops early.
- Hold is how long the sources must stay quiet before the release starts. It stops the volume pumping between words.
- Release ramps back up to the rest volume. A source going active again mid-release restarts the attack from wherever the volume is, with no jump.
- The rest volume is whatever the target's mixer slider was before ducking. Change it in the Windows mixer while idle and DuckDuck follows.
- Ducking never raises volume. If the target is already below Duck to, nothing moves.
If DuckDuck is closed or killed mid-duck, the target is restored on exit, or on the next launch if it had no chance to.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Duck to | 20 % | Mixer level the target is held at while ducked |
| Attack | 150 ms, Fast | Ramp down time and curve |
| Release | 800 ms, Smooth | Ramp up time and curve |
| Hold | 400 ms | Quiet time required before release |
| Trigger at (per source) | 5 % | Peak level a source must reach to count as playing, measured after its own Windows mixer slider: an app turned down to 30 % in the mixer needs a lower trigger |
| Ducking enabled | on | Off lets a duck in progress release, then never triggers |
| Start minimized to tray | off | |
| Run at Windows startup | off | Adds a Run entry for the current user; starts in the tray |
Curves, as easing of the ramp's progress:
| Curve | Feel |
|---|---|
| Linear | constant rate |
| Fast | moves quickly, then settles |
| Slow | eases in, then moves |
| Smooth | S-curve, gentle at both ends |
Settings are saved as they change to %APPDATA%\DuckDuck\config.json.
Needs the .NET 10 SDK on Windows.
git clone https://github.com/zebadrabbit/DuckDuck
cd DuckDuck
dotnet build
publish.cmd produces the single self-contained exe in dist\. Two flags help when
something isn't working:
DuckDuck.exe --list # print the audio apps the engine sees, with peaks and volumes, for 5 s
DuckDuck.exe --selftest # check process-loopback activation and the ducking state machine
The app is C# and WPF on .NET 10 with one dependency, NAudio,
for the Windows Core Audio session API. SPEC.md and PLAN.md are the design and build
notes it was written from.
- The target ducks while only the target is playing. Something else is ducking too. Discord's Voice & Video → Attenuation lowers other apps when people talk, and the Communications tab of the classic Windows Sound panel does the same when a call starts. Turn both off and let DuckDuck do it alone.
- A source's meter is dimmed. Hover it for the reason. For an app, process loopback
is unavailable (Windows before 10 2004), so its level is the plain session meter, which
also includes other apps' audio when the source records the output mix. For Microphone,
no app is recording from any mic right now; join a call and it comes alive.
DuckDuck.exe --listmarks such sources with*. - Nothing ducks. Check Ducking enabled in the window or the tray menu, and that the source's meter actually crosses its tick while it plays.
- Apps using exclusive-mode audio bypass the per-app mixer, so they can't be ducked.
- Elevated (run-as-administrator) apps show a generic icon.
- One set of sources and one target. No profiles or hotkeys.