MacOS Original Sound for Musicians still suppressing audio

[drewcurley]

I am using an M4 macbook pro running Tahoe (also happens on previous versions). I am in a meeting that primarily has a speaker at a podium (where the mic is), but we also have instruments. Everything sound fine at the podium, but when music is happening, even though the microphone picks it up perfectly (microphone is directly recorded, and recorded on the mac itself to verify), zoom intermittently (more often than not) suppresses the music as well.  This goes against what the settings suggest, which is that audio suppression should be 100% disabled. I have tried every option.  Windows zoom has more options and can completely disable the noise suppression, but the mac version doesn't seem to have this option. This is a huge problem, please make the app do what it says it does and is supposed to do when using this mode. That's why we choose it, to have unprocessed audio. 

Before people start offering useless suggestions, I am an audio engineer and a software engineer. I know how to troubleshoot my own computer and software and have gone through every step. please don't suggest something that could easily be googled. This is a zoom software code issue, not a software setting issue, hardware issue, or microphone issue. Suggestions like "make your music louder" is not helpful. 

[storyhub · Accepted solution]

As an audio and broadcast engineer I can tell you that computer audio (especially Apple devices) can be very complicated. Assuming that you are hosting the audio source then M4 MacBook Pros have advanced audio noise suppression through the built-in "Voice Isolation" feature available in macOS. Have you changed that to wide spectrum? This comes before Zoom's original sound in the audio chain.

If this works please click accept as a solution.

[CitrusRidgeLDS]

This is what we found, too. In hopes that this is indeed the solution, I added more details. 

[CitrusRidgeLDS]

You didn't mention it, so I'll just throw this out there. It wasn't obvious to us, but this is what we ultimately discovered. The culprit might be macOS’s Voice Isolation mode "fixing things" before the audio gets to Zoom.

Here’s how to turn it off while in a Zoom meeting:

1. Open the Control Center:
   • While in a Zoom meeting, look at the top-right corner of your screen in the menu bar. You should see an icon that looks like a microphone or sound icon (it might be orange if the mic is active).
   • Click this icon to open the Control Center. (On some macOS versions, you might need to click the time or sound icon to access it.)
2. Find the Mic Mode Setting:
   • In the Control Center, look for a section labeled Mic Mode. It will show the app currently using the microphone (e.g., "zoom.us").
   • You’ll see a dropdown with options like "Standard," "Voice Isolation," and possibly "Wide Spectrum."
3. Switch to Standard Mode:
   • If "Voice Isolation" is selected, click the dropdown and choose Standard. This will stop macOS from filtering out background sounds like music, which should help with lessons or performances.
   • (Note: If you see "Wide Spectrum," that’s another option to preserve music, but "Standard" usually works best for most setups.)
4. Verify the Change:
   • Test your audio with a student or by recording yourself in Zoom to ensure both your voice and any instruments (like a piano) are coming through clearly.

Important Reminder: You still need to enable Original Sound for Musicians in Zoom

We noticed this issue on one of our M1 MacBook Airs but not others, even though the settings looked identical. It seems macOS might enable Voice Isolation by default after an update, or it could be a bug with how Zoom and macOS interact. Turning off Voice Isolation fixed the problem for us, and I hope it helps you too! Unfortunately, I couldn’t upload screenshots to show the menu, but the steps above should be straightforward.