Audio--Can't Hear Musical Instruments Anymore | Community
Skip to main content
Newcomer
May 4, 2024
Question

Audio--Can't Hear Musical Instruments Anymore

  • May 4, 2024
  • 9 replies
  • 179 views

Hello--I can no longer hear musical instruments on Zoom. The musician will have original sound for musicians turned on and others in the Zoom can hear them, but I can hear only voice, not the instrument.  I turned background noise to low in audio settings, but that didn't help. This problem cropped up a couple of months ago--I used to be able to hear them, but can't now.  However, I can hear instruments on other meeting apps, so I don't think this is a Windows issue and think it's a Zoom issue. Will appreciate any suggestions!  Thanks--

9 replies

Newcomer
May 17, 2024

It sounds like Zoom's audio settings might be filtering out the instruments as background noise. Make sure the musician has "Original Sound" enabled and that both you and the musician have "High fidelity music mode" turned on in the advanced audio settings. Additionally, check if "Echo cancellation" is set to auto or aggressive, which could be affecting the audio. By the way if you are interested in music creation or production, I can share https://faqaudio.com/ this music forum for you. There are a lot of information both for beginners and experts in this field.

Newcomer
September 12, 2024

Thanks very much, Hommat, and apologies for the delay.

Newcomer
September 11, 2024

This is helpful - should "Echo Cancellation" be set to auto or aggressive? Mine is currently set to auto and I cannot hear my student. I will make sure they have "High fidelity music mode" toggled on, but otherwise all the settings seem correct for this one student and I can't hear her.

Newcomer
September 11, 2024

I tried every combination even unsinstall and reinstalling older version, it's just not working, I'm gonna ask for a refund...

Newcomer
October 21, 2024

Same issue here. And it seems lots of other people are having this issue. 

Newcomer
October 22, 2024

See if you have Realtek Audio Console - if you do, there's a setting Speakers->Sound Effects->Speakers Noise Cancellation (Voice Call). Try turning this off - I think this *may* have solved it for me. I would guess that other sound software may have a similar 'feature' that could be causing the issue.

Newcomer
February 28, 2025

this worked for me. I have an Asus laptop. I think the audio app is called different names for different laptop brands. just search for the audio app of your laptop brand and turn off noise cancellation from there.

Newcomer
January 12, 2025

Seems the issue reapeared after the last W11 updates, worked fine with Realtec disabled (and it remained disabled). W11 updates applied and Realtec turned itself back on and now disabling the Realtec no longer works to hear live music. UGH. Anyone else having this issue and have come across a work around? And yes I use the "original sound for musicians" toggle.

Newcomer
January 15, 2025

I have worked 2 hours on this issue, to no Avail. Nothing seems to correct the problem. Maybe Zoom just does not care about the musicians. All I hear is my voice, no piano. I have a weekly online rehearsal that is ruined by this problem. Toggling to the original sound setting DOES NOT WORK! I had this problem a few months back but could get through it using the original sound setting. NOW IT IS BACK!

Newcomer
February 5, 2025

Hi, I think I have found workaround to correct musical instrument being filtered on zoom.

The issue appears to be with a specific w11 update not zoom itself. The Win 11 version that I have is 24H2 and is not performing as expected in some regard. The other machine that I have is using version 23H2 and appers to be working fine. There is the setting in ‘system/sound/ under imput device click on your microphone and another sub menu should open, where towards the bottom you should find “Audio Enhancements with voice focus on/off option”. This should be set to OFF, but the issue is that changing that setting does not have any effect due to software glitch that does not sent this information to the hardware. So this is what you need to do:

  1. Start your zoom meeting, you can go to audio settings in zoom and verify that indeed your microphone does pickup voice but not piano or other instrument by watching microphone bar moving while talking or playing. Keep zoom meeting on so your input device “microphone” will stay in use by zoom.
  2. Now go back to Win 11 settings and change the “voice focus” to OFF, (as described above) or if it is already OFF just set “Audio Enhancements “to OFF altogether.
  3. This should now trigger message on your Zoom meeting that your input devise is not working ect… (because now the command has been finally sent to the microphone hardware)
  4. Open “Audio settings” on Zoom and change to a different audio profile temporary so the zoom will react to the new state change of your microphone. Your instrument should now be picked up by your microphone.
  5. Change back to whatever Audio profile you need, Original sound or Life performance and the microphone should continue to work.
  6.  

Hope this help you to resolve the issue, hopefully this will be addressed in next Win11 update.

Newcomer
February 6, 2025

Hi, thanks for this. Unfortunately I'm using Windows 10, and none of these settings are present.

MGSR
Community Manager
Community Manager
March 27, 2025

Hello @cmc3,

I'm sorry for the late response. Unfortunately, it is a known issue for Windows 10 to be missing the audio enhancement tab. You can check out this thread on Microsoft on how to enable the settings.

Newcomer
March 19, 2025

I also having the same issues for the last 6 months. Now thinking of switching to another application, but waiting for the reply from the Zoom team.

 

System: Mac Book 

Zoom version: 6.4.0 (51205)

Issue: Can't Hear Musical Instruments Anymore. Tried all the setting. 

Newcomer
March 19, 2025

I gave up on Zoom, cancelled my account, and switched to Google Meet Pro. It has been a dream come true! The audio not only works, but is much better than Zoom used to be (when it worked), and the user interface both during meetings and when revisiting recorded meetings is much more intuitive. Highly recommend!