Music quality terrible with brand new MacBook Air

[Paul_Gross]

We use Zoom to broadcast our church services.  With my old Mac (M1 chip; OS Sonoma 14.1.2) and Zoom version 5.16.10 we got good sound.  Now, with a new Mac (M2 chip, OS Sonoma 14.2), the sound is terrible.  It sounds as if the piano is underwater.  Turning off echo cancellation didn't help.  The mic mode is properly set on Standard.  (The other setting was worse.)  Uninstalling Zoom 5.17.10 and installing 5.16.10 didn't help.  I tried an audio interface with a directional mike that with the older Mac produced great sound--still no good.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  Thanks.

[storyhub]

You must use "Original sound for musicians" if you want to hear anything besides a voice. You will also need to turn it on every time you start the meeting. If you have this on (turned on in settings and in the upper left corner of the Zoom window) and it still does not sound correct then Apple is preprocessing the audio.

[Paul_Gross]

Thanks.  We've been using original sound each time we try, and it hasn't helped.  I appreciate your thoughts--and this is going where I expected:  Zoom will point the finger at Apple, and Apple will point the finger at Zoom.  Oy.

[lauralentzflute]

Hi Paul! Were you able to solve this? I'm having similar issues on my imac.

[Paul_Gross]

Yes, we were able to solve it.  The problem involved "Original Sound for Musicians," which I thought was turned on, but wasn't.  When on a Zoom call, the Original Sound for Musicians alert (on the upper left of the screen on a Mac) needs to say On.  Turning it on in the Audio settings didn't turn it on effectively.  I hope that this is helpful.