Audio--Can't Hear Musical Instruments Anymore

[MountainMusic]

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--

[Hommat]

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.

[MountainMusic]

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

[MusicTeacher1]

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.

[jiheneroots]

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

[MikeHiggott]

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

[MikeHiggott]

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.

[Herb2]

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.

[passionatepiano]

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!

[cmc3]

I am also experiencing this and it is driving me crazy! Have you learned of any work arounds yet?

[polarnet1]

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 appears to be working fine. There is the setting in ‘system/sound/ under input 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.

[MountainMusic]

Thanks very much--I'll give this a try and will report back. 

[polarnet1]

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.

[cmc3]

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