No Duck Quacks

I use this trick all the time, especially when my class is quietly writing and I have music playing (or if I'm in a meeting and want to lower my volume without the electronic duck quacks). If you hold down the Shift key and then press your volume buttons (F3, F4, or F5) it will raise and lower your volume without the noise. Pretty cool.

Another useless tidbit to add: You can fine-tune your volume (increase/decrease it incrementally) by holding down Shift + Option and then F4 or F5. You go from 16 increments to 64.