Sudden degradation of sound | Community
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New Member
February 10, 2026
Question

Sudden degradation of sound

  • February 10, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 22 views

Must resolve this remotely. No on-site audio technician.

Zoom Meeting Configuration: Board ‘Meeting Room’ setting, Host / owner is remote. Presenter is a ‘Panelist’ in ‘Meeting Room’ with other people there.  Numerous people are off-site listening / viewing, sometimes commenting. 

Audio configuration in ‘Meeting Room’. Presenter wears a clip mic. There is another mic that picks up comments from those in the meeting room. Sound from both mics go through a mixer and into a dedicated speaker computer and it sends video and audio to Zoom-land. People in the ‘Meeting Room’ are NOT technical. Host is semi-technical.

EVERYTHING WORKED FINE FOR MANY MONTHS. Yesterday it tanked. 

Yesterday: Presenter sounded like he was speaking in a cave. Knew something about changing settings and clicked (bottom left corner) on ‘Audio’ then saw Microphone Mode settings and then turned ON Noise Removal (default). Audio suddenly went back to the way it always was. Sounded great again. Meeting was over and they shut the dedicated computer down.

Today: Turned the dedicated computer on for a new Zoom meeting. Audio was degraded again, back to cave-land.

Can the HOST do anything to ensure that the ‘Meeting Room’ computer (or maybe all panelists) have Noise Removal turned on?

If not, how can this setting be saved so that the next day, when the dedicated computer is turned on, they don’t have to fiddle with the audio settings?

Thank you.

    2 replies

    storyhub
    Community Super Champion | Customer
    Community Super Champion | Customer
    February 11, 2026

    Are you hearing the echo from the room speakers? Or are others complaining they hear it?  Most likely another participant has their speakers feeding back to their mic which is feeding back to your speakers. Or the speaker is being picked up by the comment mic in the room and the presenter mic is weak. Make sure all participants are muted to see if that stops the echo. If it does then locate the source by unmuting one at a time when they are not speaking. 

    T BlackAuthor
    New Member
    February 11, 2026

    Thanks so much for the reply. I was not in the Meeting Room. Was a remote Zoom listener and it sounded like the presenter was speaking in a cave. Would not call that an echo. Have been in the Meeting Room when there was an echo echo echo ….. That WAS because another live computer in the room was also listening over Zoom and had his speaker turned on. Not the case this time and those in the room had no issue. The speaker has always been picked up by the room mic somewhat and everything worked fine together for many months. Yesterday’s fix came from the presenter turning ‘Noise Removal’ ON in the dedicated computer. But the cave sound came back again today. I just need to know how to make the ON setting stick. Or, maybe the host / admin can do something so that the non-technical users in the room don’t have to do anything.

    storyhub
    Community Super Champion | Customer
    Community Super Champion | Customer
    February 11, 2026

    After making your changes, toggle Lock Settings again.

    Vinnie
    Community Champion | Customer
    Community Champion | Customer
    February 11, 2026

    Hello ​@T Black 

    From the description, it could be that having the mixer in the middle might be the culprit; I don't know what type of mixer but the fact that the Zoom Room has a direct control (connection) of the mics but receiving a mixed audio from a third-party hardware could a perfect explanation of why, or maybe the Clip Mic is not working properly)

    1. The Clip Mic stopped working, or disconnected from the mixer, or the gain is too low in comparison to the Room Mic and the room acoustics is not good, the remote participants will receive the audio with echo.
    2. Presenter being picked by both microphones and mixed would cause that “Reverberation” (like you are inside an cave or a room with a lot of echo) and on top of that, if the conferencing room has no good acoustics, the whole thing will amplify.
    3. Some General Audio Mixers comes with effects features deemed for music, like room effects: make sure your mixer doesn't have that, and if it has it, that is disabled.

     

    TEST: “Mute” the room microphone and only use the Clip Mic to verify if the issue persists: If so, it could be there is an “Effect” activated in the Mixer. IF there is no audio, then the Clip Mic could be damaged, disconnected, or the Gain is too low. If it works fine, Turn-off the Gain of the Room microphone, Un-Mute and start increasing the volume while talking to see if you can replicate the issue.

     

    Let me know how it goes, and if this resolved your issue or points you in the right direction, please don't forget to mark this as a solution

    Best regards,

    Vinnie.

     

     

    T BlackAuthor
    New Member
    February 11, 2026

    Vinnie, thank you so much for your reply. That was exactly my first response when I heard the degradation. I was remote and kept on putting into the chat that they should check the mixer setting and the sound level for the speaker’s mic. Didn’t work. Then, when the presenter turned ON Noise Removal, everything sounded great, like it used to. I just want to know how to make the setting stick. Or, if the Host / Admin can do something so that the users don’t have to fiddle around.

    I was never a presenter in the Meeting Room and sat at the dedicated computer. 

    When they are done with the meeting and they are going to end the Zoom session, does Zoom come up with a pop-up asking if it should save the change to the settings? This would be an easy fix. Have them fix it and tell them to answer YES to that pop-up. Then, the next day it should sound fine (hopefully).