If you keep switching the same speakers on and off together, save them as a scene — the whole ground floor, or just the office. A scene is a named set of speakers you can bring back in one pick.
The Scenes tab
The Scenes tab lists your saved scenes in a sidebar on the left. The scene you select opens in an editor beside it, with its name and its speakers. If you have no scenes yet, the tab shows “Add scene…” instead.
- Click “Add scene” at the bottom of the sidebar to make a new one.
- Click a scene in the sidebar to edit it. Every change saves on its own, so there is no Save button.
- Right-click a scene for “Rename…” and “Delete scene…”.
If you edit the scene that is playing right now, its speakers change straight away.
The equalizer is not in this tab. Each speaker’s tone controls are on its own page in the Speakers tab. See The per-speaker equalizer.
Saving from the mixer
You don’t have to build a scene by hand. Set up the mixer the way you want it, then choose “Save selected speakers as scene” from the Main Audio menu. The current set of active speakers is saved as a new scene, ready to name.
This is usually the fastest route: get the room sounding right first, then save what you have.
Recalling a scene
To bring a scene back, open the destination menu on the Main Audio row and pick it. The menu lists “Selected Speakers” plus every scene you have saved, so switching from one set of rooms to another is one pick. The mixer switches to that set of speakers, and each one returns to the volume it had when the scene was saved. The Mac’s own output is the exception: its fader is the Mac’s system volume, and a scene never moves that.
The faders still multiply the usual way after a recall: what a speaker plays is Main × Scene × Speaker. The mixer: Main Audio, faders, and meters explains that model.
After the trial ends
Scenes need a license once the free trial is over. The Main Audio menu then reads “Buy Audiout to use scenes.” Your saved scenes are kept, and they work again as soon as you enter a key. Audiout only plays on one speaker after the trial covers what else changes.
What comes back at launch
Settings › General has a switch: “Reconnect last speakers when Audiout starts”.
- On: Audiout restores the set of speakers you were using when it last quit. Your rooms come back without you touching anything. The volumes saved in a scene are not applied at launch; pick the scene once and every speaker returns to its saved volume.
- Off: Audiout starts on the Mac’s own speakers only. Nothing outside the Mac plays until you switch speakers on yourself.
Off is the cautious choice if your speakers are shared with other people, or if you don’t want a HomePod in another room springing to life the moment your Mac boots.
When to use a scene versus a per-app route
Scenes answer “which rooms play the mix”. If instead you want one app on one speaker while everything else stays put, that’s a per-app route, a different tool. See Routing one app to a speaker.
More articles live at the support overview.