Original Sound by Default

[PRM-KS]

Hello - just updated zoom today (11.02.22) and it seems like Original Sound needs to be turned on manually every time now.

For the last few months it was already always on once I did it initially ... and this was so amazing. No more messing up meetings where I share audio or workshops where we're working on music things and I just know its going to sound amazing from the beginning without the extra awkward "wait let me turn on original sound".

Is there a way for me to turn original sound on and let it be that way forever on the newest version? If not...can this become a thing please?

[YaBoiB]

Hi @Music_Teach_JK, 

 When I talked to the team developing one of the solutions, he said, "tons of progress has been accomplished," but he has not yet provided me with a target date or release timeline. I apologize; I know you all have been waiting for a while now. Trust me, the team has seen all of these comments and knows you are all waiting patiently. Also, this post has leadership visibility, so Zoom is listening and working very hard to make this possible for all applications. 

What I know of the fix is that you, as the music teacher, can make the setting change for the children. I am still waiting to see design specs on this new functionality, but I have been told that documentation will be posted before the release to allow you to prepare for the change. As always, I'll reach out to you all here as soon as I hear more. I hope you have a great day. 

Kind regards,

Brandon

[Rayco]

I don't know what you or your team think is 'PROGRESS' when nothing has been done for over a year and basically it was working perfectly well on version 5.11 until your over paid designers and programmer broke it. 

[doremiteacher]

Discovered this yesterday!

Open Audio Settings

Select "Zoom Background Noise Removal" (in other words de-select "Original Sound For Musicians")

Under "Background Noise Suppression," change it from AUTO to LOW

WORKS BETTER THAN ORIGINAL SOUND (at least for my students and for me) and you do not have to do it every time you start a meeting!

[Rayco]

That might be handy for some (very few) people, will do some test with this. 

 Bottom line is Zoom should never have BROKEN their pwn software, and should now be listening to they paying customers telling them they got it wrong. 

[doremiteacher]

I AGREE wholeheartedly.  However, I am tired of WAITING for them to fix it - and (given that I have over 180 students - all of whom will occasionally participate online), I do not wish to switch platforms (argh, it took several years to get everyone set up with Zoom 😕  )  

This is a nice "patch" until Zoom DOES fix it....and NO ONE HAS TO REMEMBER to click a button to make it work in the meeting.

I was doing online testing yesterday and the students who had it set to Original Sound ON sounded more broken and spotty than the students who tried this new way.  IN ADDITION, the students who had it set to the NEW settings did not have to remember to RE-CLICK "Original Sound" after they were put in the waiting room and then returned to the meeting (part of my online testing process.)

I'm gonna go with it and keep checking in for Zoom's solution to the problem that they created. 

I hope that this works for YOU!  🙂

[doremiteacher]

OK.  After some more research, the option of setting "noise suppression" to LOW is only available on laptops and desktops.  If you are using a tablet or phone to join zoom, you will still need to fight with Original Sound. Bummer!

[doremiteacher]

One of my students did some research on microphone settings for iPhone.  apparently, changing your iphone microphone setting to "wide spectrum" is the alternative to "Use Original Sound."  The drawback that I can see is after the meeting, you will have to change it back to the default or your phone calls will sound terrible.  My student doesn't seem to mind and this seems to be working very well for him:

1. Swipe down from the top-left corner of the screen (or up from the bottom if you have an iPhone with a Home button) to open Control Center.
2. Tap the Mic Mode button.
3. Select Wide Spectrum.

[Rayco]

Is is much easier to just put Original Sound on, what is needed here is not work-arounds but pressure on the Zoom bosses to fix the problem that THEY caused in V.5.12 

[doremiteacher]

Yes. I am using original sound on my end. It works best for a group music lesson situation. 

However, several of my students (who join the group online) have found this "workaround" to be much easier (as it is a one time setting) and now we are not spending 10s of minutes (while the rest of the group waits) doing the "did you enable original sound" dance. 

I absolutely agree that zoom needs to fix it. In the meantime, I need a workaround for my students.  This new way is not ideal but it makes things smoother (for some) until the zoom team gets their act together. 

[YaBoiB]

Hi @doremiteacher, 

 The Zoom team has some information about this topic that should be available in January. Not the topic that you mentioned above, but the topic of Original Sound. Please continue to review this thread for upcoming updates in January. I typically check this thread two to three times a week depending on my workload. 

[doremiteacher]

Hi Brandon

 I check this thread weekly and I check Zoom for updates every day.  You said (on 12/18/23) that the zoom team had information upcoming in January.

It is now March.

Nothing.

[YaBoiB]

Hello @doremiteacher, 

 I have been checking on this every week myself. This thread is about something other than the internal progress with our team. I was told that we are in the approval stage of new functionality, and I should have heard back on March 4th, which is today. I will check again with the team and see where we are at. Last I heard all of the support documentation and videos were approved, and they are just waiting for approval from the Marketplace team. I'll check on that progress and reply as soon as possible. 

Thanks for your patience,

[doremiteacher]

Thank you, Brandon.

I know that this is not YOUR fault (personally) and appreciate that you keep coming back and letting us know what is happening. It is good to hear that SOMETHING is happening.  I just hope that it is something that students can use.  Just yesterday in class, a student (joining the group on Zoom) tried to perform and we heard.....nothing.  I stopped her and asked her if she had selected "original sound." She said, "I looked everywhere and I could not find it."  Since we needed to keep moving (it's a group lesson) I asked her to send me a video after class.  I feel bad for the students when they work so hard and then can not show the class how wonderfully they play.

Looking forward to good news!

Thanks again, Brandon

[Music_Teach_JK]

@doremiteacher  

Thank you for sharing your firsthand experience from this week.   It's unfortunate that this issue is *STILL* persistently a problem even though it's been brought to the attention of the Zoom developers.   And it's not a new issue, it's been a source of complaint for years.  

What are music educators to do about this?  Zoom offers no support on the matter, and never implements anything to help fix the problem.   We music educators are consistently ignored.  

I really like Zoom, and I want to keep paying for it.   But I'm growing increasingly impatient as months and years go by with no attempt to help address the concerns of music educators. 

If I'm forced to, I'll have to end my pro subscription to Zoom, and choose another program to rely on for music teaching.

[Rayco]

By all means kick me out if you want, is there any point in being here if it takes you over a year and lots of broken promises to do NOTHING. 

Not what I would call being PROFESSIONAL, you are the ones charging good money for a dud product. 

[YaBoiB]

Hello All, 

For those working through workflow challenges surrounding Zoom’s audio profiles, such as Original Sound, we wanted to provide updated guidance on how to utilize our existing tools and share some insight into new solutions we’ve recently introduced. 

The audio product team at Zoom previously introduced a change to Original Sound that makes the in-meeting toggle revert to OFF between meetings. The motivation for the change was to address the issue where users were activating original sound in situations where they shouldn’t have been using that setting, causing poor meeting audio experiences as a result. For example, a music student turns on Original Sound for music class, but then goes to history class and disrupts the entire meeting with echo problems that derail the conversation. Unintentionally, a bug was also introduced as part of this change that also caused the in-session toggle for Original Sound to reset to OFF when joining or leaving breakout rooms.

As you have noted in this thread, the above change made a significant impact to music teachers, podcast producers, and event professionals who use Original Sound as part of their daily activities. We have found that these customers generally fall into two categories:

1. They themselves wish to use original sound (such as those with pro setups / mics). Changing this setting every time they change between meetings or breakout rooms is frustrating, and if they forget to do it, it could significantly degrade their audio without them realizing. 

2. They need to coach other people to turn on Original Sound (music teacher needs to explain to students how to set this up). This process has become more difficult to explain to people as the settings have become increasingly complex and are no longer persistent in all cases.

We would now like to share how we are addressing these concerns:

1) The bug that caused the Original Sound in-session toggle to revert to OFF when moving between Breakout Rooms has been resolved as of Zoom Client Release 5.15.10. Please update to the latest version of Zoom to solve this issue. 

2) Only for customers in Category 1 (you want to use Original Sound all the time for yourself), please watch these video tutorials and resources detailing how to take advantage of an advanced setting for the Zoom installer, which allows you to change Original Sound to always be on. The selected Audio Profile and the in-session toggle will be enabled after this tutorial. This solution is most helpful in situations where Zoom is installed in a location and on a computer that is always suited to use Original Sound for all meetings. We do not recommend this approach for coaching others (Category 2) or if you frequently need to toggle the state of Original Sound (such as on a laptop, where at home you may want it ON but on-the-go you may want it OFF). 

3) For customers in Category 2 (you need to coach others on enabling Original Sound for your meetings), Zoom has just released a new Zoom App called Remote Settings Control, which allows the Zoom host to set a variety of settings, including Original Sound, on behalf of other participants in the Zoom Meeting or Webinar. This tool will, for example, allow a teacher to obtain control of the audio profile for all of their students on Zoom, and enable Original Sound for all of them at once, or individually. To install this tool, please visit the Zoom App Marketplace listing for the Remote Settings Control App and for more information, check out the support article. 

We thank you for your feedback and look forward to continuing to serve the many diverse use cases powered by Zoom.

[bpmusic]

Thank you Brandon - looking at the app, there are two options "install for others" and "install for myself" - this terminology is confusing.  Which option should I be choosing if I am the teacher and I want to be able to manage students' settings?

[YaBoiB]

@bpmusic, 

 If you are talking about on the Marketplace, that just means that you are installing the remote control app on your account or on every one of your users on your account. Since you are the owner or admin of your account, it asks you that question. If you have other users on your account and you share your main zoom account with other people, then you would be allowing anyone on your account to use the remote control. 

If it is just you, then it is safe to select either option. 

Thanks,

[doremiteacher]

Hi Brandon

I am so excited to try out the Remote Settings App later this afternoon!

Bit confused tho......the explanation above makes it sound like we can do one or the other:

1. Set Teacher computer to be "original sound always on"

OR

2. Control Student settings

Can we do both?

Regarding Option 1

The tutorial instructs us to "right click the installer to open a "Powershell" window," but that option is not there.  

For people who have the same problem, here is a tutorial on how to install Powershell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba4ZPsc2h4M

Powershell installed, computer restarted....but.....

After the right-click, Powershell is still not there.  I tried "open with" Powershell, but that does not work.  Powershell opens and then immediately closes.

So, for today, I'll try Option 2 and we'll see how it goes!

So glad that things are happening!!!

Thank you, Brandon!

[Music_Teach_JK]

@YaBoiB 

Thanks, this is fantastic news!   For the first time I feel like Zoom has listened and taken our concerns seriously.   I feel heard, and validated!

I'll install the Remote app and begin testing it.   Will it also change the audio settings for my iOS students?   They have the hardest time. 

[doremiteacher]

OK

Yesterday, I tried Option 2.  I got the "remote settings control" app.  I opened it. My student showed in the "Request Remote Control" window - all good so far! Then things went wrong. I clicked "Invite" to invite her to grant permission.  Her name changed color and said "Pending."   

BUT

She never saw anything.  No request to download an app. No request to grant permission.  Nothing. 

SO

We [again] could not hear her performance. 

Please help.

Thank you

[chantelleflx]

Thank you Brandon! I am in Category 1 and was able to update our studio laptops this morning to force Original Sound on. (It didn't work quite the way the video showed with accessing the PowerShell, but I figured it out.) It works great now. We have had so many problems since the "original sound default on" setting was taken away, so it is a huge relief to finally have a solution. My only thought is that this is a pretty complicated solution for the average person in my position. The old way was better in that it could all happen through the standard user interface. Again, I'm very glad to have a solution but wish it were a little more straightforward.

One question--when a new version of Zoom is released and the software updates, will this setting stay? Or will I have to go through a manual installation process again?

[doremiteacher]

Good question, Chantellefix!

I have not figured out option 1 ( I agree that the old way was a LOT better).

If we have to go through this with every update, it is not really a solution.....

[OC1st]

chantelleflx, the answer to your question about the impact of future program updates is found on the following page, but I've copied the relevant statement, just below the link.

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0060716 

Note: If the desktop client was installed with the MSI installer by you or your IT team, AutoUpdate is disabled by default and the Check for Updates button is also removed. Please contact your IT team or Zoom account admin for help with updating.

[OC1st]

---

@YaBoiB wrote:

2) Only for customers in Category 1 (you want to use Original Sound all the time for yourself), please watch these video tutorials and resources detailing how to take advantage of an advanced setting for the Zoom installer, which allows you to change Original Sound to always be on. The selected Audio Profile and the in-session toggle will be enabled after this tutorial. This solution is most helpful in situations where Zoom is installed in a location and on a computer that is always suited to use Original Sound for all meetings.

---

I have followed the instructions, using the MSI installation method, with the specified command line options on two different computers. After doing the installation, the first time I sign in and start a meeting, OSFM is already enabled and toggled on, as desired and expected. However, once I sign out, after this first time, every time I sign in again, when I start a meeting, it no longer has OSFM enabled. If I go into the audio settings and enable it, it at least is automatically toggled on.

So in summary, we still have to remember to enable OSFM, but at least we no longer have to toggle it on after enabling it.

Very disappointing...

[Keyosuke]

Thanks for providing a way to set Original Sound on in a way that would persist between sessions, which matters because it constantly aggravates karaoke singers whose background music is eliminated if they forget to turn it on, but this MSI method which uses the zConfig="EnableOriginalSound=1" parameter is too difficult for most of our karaoke singers, because they aren't familiar with commandline terminals.  We can walk them through it, but using the MSI also means they don't get automatic updates, and while I would try to configure the MSI to allow automatic updates via zConfig, I do not know how I can use both zConfig="EnableOriginalSound=1" and zConfig="AU2_EnableAutoUpdate=1" parameters for the same install. 

On a different note, the way the app functions when zConfig="EnableOriginalSound=1" is used is exactly what most of us were always asking for, in that we can still turn Original Sound to off or by going in the audio settings and changing selected options, but we cannot change it with the on-screen shortcut, which is no problem for me.  We know what we want and this is close enough, if only updating could still be a simple, end-user process and not an Admin process, and none of us feels like trying to automate this MSI install for people who aren't IT savy.

[YaBoiB]

Hello @Keyosuke, 

 If you are changing the setting for a setup that you control, the MSI method is recommended. If I were advising end users who are not IT savvy, I would suggest the Remote control app. 

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0073891 

It is more plug-and-play friendly for Hosts and their participants. Please let me know if you have any further questions. I am happy to attempt to answer them. 

[Keyosuke]

I understood your Use Cases the first time, I really did.  Let me explain my need and the need of my large community of karaoke singers who still use this since the pandemic, so you can see how sad we all were when I broke it to them that this won't work for us.

For Use Case 1, which is for single users who want to manage this themselves by installing the MSI for IT Developers via a terminal: a person doing this is also disabling the auto updater, which means they will have to follow this process manually every single time Zoom  gets an update, which is very frequently.  And a rebuttal to that being an issue for my friends is obviously that the MSI was intended for IT professionals like myself who use a patch delivery system / update manager like SCCM -> MECM -> Microsoft Configuration Manager, to deliver future MSI files automatically, across our organization, but the MSI method crippling the auto updater for people who don't have any of that corporate infrastructure just means a lot of those single individuals having to download and install manually, over and over.  This isn't better with Use Case 2 for groups because some of these people do toggling O.S. on and off while they use speakers rather than headphones, which is not ideal and aggravates people when they screw up and echo, as was previously discussed in this thread as your reason for taking away the original persistence of O.S.  Not all users want to use O.S., as the ones on speakers sometimes opt for a worse experience to avoid switching to headphones.  We aren't a music class where a teacher has say over what the prerequisite hardware is and who uses what feature.  The situations are diverse in a karaoke room.  If there was a way to turn back on the auto-update features for the MSI at the SAME TIME as enabling O.S. in vConfig, that would solve this issue for those of us that want the feature but aren't prepared to manage our own updates without MSI deployment infrastructure.

I may try to solve this "Updating is a big pain in the bass after using the MSI" problem by creating a powershell script that downloads the MSI for them and reinstalls the app when they run it, because no single user in their darn house is going to have an automated way to do this already.  There is some glue missing for this Use Case 1 to be viable.  I'm speaking from 17 years of IT experience in the field.

So what about Use Case 2, where the host changes the settings for everyone who uses that addon Zoom app?  That's certainly a learning curve for hosts and a situation where clients need to opt into someone else controlling their settings, which is a big thing to ask for from individuals who are jamming out in a hobby related karaoke room, open mic, or musical collaboration, but are not in a formal class.  

One good thing I will say about Use Case 1 that I haven't seen anyone here say: You can STILL enable and disabled Original Sound rapidly after using the MSI to default it to On.  You just need to do that in the Audio Settings, which is how it used to be a very long time ago. That experience was nice.  If not for the lack of auto-updater, I'd find this perfect for myself, and I'd share it with my friends as part of a package, as it's kind of crazy to lock users out of a feature unless they are IT savy enough to use Powershell and MSI parameters knowing they won't have a packaging and distribution management platform like every major company who uses your MSIs has, which was the whole point of that "IT Professionals" part of your site.  That MSI is definitely not up there for people like us.  The section is for companies, which is why it overlooks dealing with updates, since companies have that covered, where as laymen using Zoom to sing outside of a classroom do not.  I mean, the bare minimum that would let a single individual use that MSI and still have an auto-updater without some additional command info from you would be ... what ... winget paired with task scheduler and perhaps more powershell?

Please feel free to take my exact words to folks.  Perhaps the IT related aspect of this will help with understanding how this MSI method is helpful, but almost useless to my friends and anyone else in a similar situation.   We're not uniform enough to assume the whole room wants O.S. enabled, so that app isn't what we need either.  Perhaps you can expose a registry entry that does the same thing, or a commandline that would let us turn the auto updater stuff back on at the same time as the O.S.?  I could not figure out MSI parameters to get that done.

It was also very hard to post this comment since the word "uniform" was originally hom o genous but that word was blocked as a slur, meanwhile it's on every gallon of milk.

So far, I may have found a way for people with winget installed to easily update this MSI without having a more robust MSI deployment infrastructure.  This one winget command seems to do the trick of checking for updates and installing them, but I'll have to wait until after the next upgrade it finds before checking if the O.S. is still present or failed to install.  That command is: winget upgrade --id Zoom.Zoom --custom zConfig="EnableOriginalSound=1"
This is not advice to any users but is meant for Zoom to take a look and verify.

[Rayco]

This just WILL NOT WORK, too complicated. 

Put it back to the way it was in V.5.11 

Simple box to click on for Original Sound. 

[Keyosuke]

I've been hard at work figuring out how to get this MSI method to be easy, and I am getting REALLY close to it.  So, you download that MSI and run the following command right next to it, using the terminal of your choice:
msiexec /i ZoomInstallerFull.msi zConfig="EnableOriginalSound=1;AU2_EnableShowZoomUpdates=1;AU2_EnableUpdateAvailableBanner=1;AU2_EnablePromptUpdateForAU2=1"
And this gives you persistent Original Sound AND the auto update feature so you don't have to keep doing this MSI install stuff every time a version comes out.

But admittedly, I'm not done testing this out.  Still, I'm posting this now, because I think the MSI solution is a closer fit to my friends' and community's need than the remote control app, since we have many rooms and diverse settings choices, even for Original Sound, with diverse hardware topography.  So if you want to be able to turn OS on and off and have that persist, give this a try.  And then let me know if it successfully auto updates or prompts you to update and succeeds when you allow it, next time a version comes out.  If that all works out, I think most of us can calm down and get back to enjoying Zoom.

I'll post more as I find out the flaws in what I just said or better tweak the MSI settings to approximate the EXE install we were used to.  As an IT professional, perhaps Zoom did leave the door open for us, and we can hold it open for you.

[YaBoiB]

@MuffledPastor, 

I apologize for the delay in my response. We’ve reviewed the previous setting and decided not to revert to the 2022 configuration, as it proved confusing for a majority of our users.

In the response above this reply, I outlined two methods for using Original Sound. Given the volume of posts here, I wanted to give you another chance to review that information and see if it meets your needs. If you have any additional questions, please let me know—I’m here to help.

[puddleduck00]

The instructions posted don't actually work (at least for Mac) for me (with the IT installer and config.plst file. I've tried this to no avail. What is a category 1 customer? Am I supposed to know what that means? Because I don't.

[Rayco]

Already people asking questions and we have not even tried it.  What was wrong with the option thatwas ALREADY there in Zoom V. 5.11 ????? 

Your developers have no idea at all. 

[Rayco]

After TWO YEARS of asking and getting very little reply apart for the occasional hollow promise, NOTHING has been done about this.  

In fact, Zoom is now worse in V.6 than it ever was, nothing fixed, things moved around for no reason, interface designed for (or by) children. 

Zoom DO NOT LISTEN, Zoom DO NOT CARE what users think or really need. 

[Rayco]

Why did Zoom change it in the first place, it was fine in version 5.22

Since then, OVER TWO YEARS, Zoom has ignored this problem until finally putting in a totaly mad and convoluted way of doing what we were able to do for years. 

[Keyosuke]

I appreciate you keeping vigilant in the thread, but you're asking a question that was answered.  They took that feature away because the Zoom company felt Original Sound = True as a saved setting was causing people who use speakers to cause feedback/echo loops in classrooms, disrupting a larger customer base (the entire school minus the music department) and the feature may have helped music classes but was disruptive to a larger audience than them.

You may not agree with how that was handled, and I think everyone here who doesn't work for Zoom probably agrees to disagree with Zoom and agree with your take, but they explained the situations and why it's like that.

And my group runs into that problem with echo all the time with a few individuals, and we guide them through it and move on when the issue occurs.  They aren't wrong that it's annoying that we can't force everyone to use headphones with that feature, but my gripe is that they gave us a way to enable it that wrecks the update experience to the point that nobody I know will go through that kind of manual update.

If anything, the situation is being handled backwards, as the folks who need to control a kid's settings to make sure O.S. is OFF should be the ones installing an addon, and that should be mandatory to be in the class.  It sure beats not trusting the users to set their settings in a way that works for their situation, so the setting must be set every single time.

My gripe is gone if they share a commandline that both enables this O.S. persistence but also allows me to configure update settings again.  Will I see that happen?  I'll be optimistic, or I'll go write a powershell script, but I don't have the time to write scripts for my Windows and Mac pals to work around something that's probably an MSI switch I just don't know.

[YaBoiB]

Hello @Keyosuke, 

 That was our point in developing the remote control app: for music teachers who need to remotely control the settings of youth or non-IT-savvy users. If there is more that you feel we need to develop, I am happy to continue to discuss this with you offline. DM me your email, and we can hop into a Zoom meeting to discuss. 

[doremiteacher]

Hi Brandon

After the update, on March 8, I posted this comment:

Yesterday, I tried Option 2.  I got the "remote settings control" app.  I opened it. My student showed in the "Request Remote Control" window - all good so far! Then things went wrong. I clicked "Invite" to invite her to grant permission.  Her name changed color and said "Pending."  

BUT

She never saw anything.  No request to download an app. No request to grant permission.  Nothing. 

SO

We [again] could not hear her performance. 

Please help.

So, there really is not a solution at all.  I have now had two students quit classes because they can not attend in person and they can not figure out the zoom settings...

AND

I can not help them from my end. 

[YaBoiB]

Hello @doremiteacher, 

 If you would not mind opening a technical support ticket. We can look at the workflow and see if there is a change needed to be made to make this functionality more seamless. My apologies for your troubles. Our excellent technical support engineers will be able to walk you through how this should work in one of your hosted meetings. 

For all others here is the support article link https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0073891

[doremiteacher]

Hi Brandon

I will try to find the time to do this. 

Unfortunately, I already work 12-16 hour days - not much extra time

I did read the entire support article and do it exactly as described

{ I am not a tech-challenged person 🙂  }

thank you for your reply