Sounds and media volume

Nock’s sounds give brief feedback about recordings and results. Its media-volume preference helps the microphone hear you over other audio. These are separate controls under Settings → General → Audio & Speech, and separate again from the agent’s spoken voice.

Interaction sounds

With Interaction sounds enabled, dictation can play a start tick once a recording actually begins and a stop tick when you finish. A brief tap that never becomes a recording does not play the same sequence.

A notice tone can draw attention to text left on the clipboard after an unconfirmed paste. An answer-ready tone can signal completion of a foreground request. These cues supplement the visible state; they do not prove that text reached the intended field or that a result is correct.

Agent holds do not use the same dictation start/stop ticks. Nock can also skip cues while you are recording or while speech is playing, so missing a tick alone does not establish failure. Watch the caption or recording state when checking a new shortcut.

Turning Interaction sounds off silences those main cues. The mapped candidate has a separate agents-panel completion/attention tone, so this switch should not be treated as a universal mute for every agent notification.

Intro music

Intro music controls the short score in the first-run welcome. The introduction also has a speaker control. Replay from Settings → About if you want to check its level after changing the preference. Muting welcome music does not disable the agent’s regular spoken replies.

Lower media volume while talking

On macOS, this option lowers the system output volume during a dictation or agent recording. Because it acts on overall output, it can quiet audio from several apps, not just a music player. The current target is roughly one fifth of the previous level when the system reports a usable volume.

Finishing or cancelling restores the previous level. Nock avoids changing an already muted or zero-volume output. If you explicitly ask Nock to set a new volume while recording, that newer request takes priority over restoring the old level.

Choose the right combination

For silent feedback, disable interaction sounds and agent speech separately. For spoken answers without lowering a call or other media, leave Agent voice enabled and turn media lowering off. Use voice settings for reply speed and voice selection.

Volume did not come back

Restore the Mac’s output volume yourself. Starting another recording may simply lower and restore the already-low value, so it is not a repair. Quitting during a recording or an output that macOS cannot control can interrupt the expected restoration.

If the behavior repeats, test with media lowering off and note the output device, whether the recording ended normally, and the visible Nock state. For silent spoken responses rather than low system volume, use voice troubleshooting.