Original Sound for Musicians Toggle Gone

[Pianonmanross]

Hi All,

In a recent update, I noticed that I can no longer toggle the original sound for musicians option on the top of the main screen.  I can change it completely in audio settings, but that's a pain if I want to go back and forth during a meeting.  For instance, I teach piano over Zoom.  When I want to play something for a student, I turn original sound on.  But if I'm typing a student's notes, I don't want the clacking of the keyboard to be heard.  So before, it was really easy to toggle on the main screen.  Now it seems you can only change it in audio settings.

Anyone else having an issue with this or has found a solution like a shortcut?

Thanks.

[Ray_Harwood · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @Pianonmanross.

Big change! Original Sound for Musicians no longer needs to be activated each meeting. Go down to the caret ^ by the Audio button and see the ability to change sound settings there. Whatever you set should be persistent between sessions. 

[SherryZ]

Thanks, Ray! This happened to me and I could not change it in audio settings - it was stuck ON. So I googled various sites and somehow found a way to turn it off without going into settings - but now I cannot remember what I did and it is stuck OFF - my screen says it is on but it is not. I have tried turning it off and on in settings, closing and opening Zoom, restarting my )Mac) laptop -- but my problem still persists. I couldn't play my guitar to be heard in a concert lsat night and have another one coming up next Sunday. Help!

[donnamg100]

I am seeing the same thing. It says ON  on the screen but it is not On.  I tried restarting the computer, unchecking it in audio settings and then rechecking, but I cannot activate original sound for musicians. 

Did you ever find a fix? What was it?

[Harpman]

Ray,

I just signed up for this very issue. I don't see the ability to set the "original sound" option as a default. I do still see the toggle button in the upper right of the screen.

In group classes there is always the issue of at least one person forgetting to set "original sound". It would be great to have the ability for the user to set it as the default (as you suggest has been done but I don't see that) or for the meeting organizer to set it for all participants. However, it would be still useful, as others suggest, to have the on screen toggle.

Thanks.

[Russell1111111]

Thank you but it's not really a solution. It's not user friendly to have to got to Audio settings to change this . Often in meetings I have to switch it on and off many times to allow high quality then in a moment allow a student to ask a question. I will report this as a bug to zoom if you feel the same please do the same.

[sendaba]

I need to switch between "Original Sound for Musicians" and audio filter several times during a meeting (I lead meditation classes and need the "Original Sound for Musicians" function when ringing the bell before and after sittings, but prefer to have the filter on during the meditation and during the discussion after the meditation). Switching "Original Sound for Musicians" on and off used to be very easy. How can it be done now? Having it either on or off for the whole session is not an option for me, and changing the whole audio setting each time also does not sound like a practical solution.

[WillCaminada]

I guide meditations too! I just found that you can change through the upward arrow where it says AUDIO ^ (and a microphone) - then you can select Noise Removal (default) or Original Sound for Musicians. The toggle at the top was much better, but this process is better than having to go to settings all the time. Hope this helps! 

[sammyvanek]

Where can we give feedback to Zoom that this change is not helpful? It's very simple to toggle this setting on/off with a single click, instead of opening a menu to do it! 🙏

[Pianonmanross]

Yeah - just wish they hadn't gotten rid of the ability to more quickly toggle it on and off.  Now it's several clicks instead of one quick click right at the top.  

[ajcrouch]

Yes wouldn't it be great if there were a keyboard shortcut to toggle "original sound for musicians" on and off. I must turn it on and off repeatedly while teaching online piano lessons and the extra fiddling and clicking in the menus is cumbersome and slow.

[chrisacton]

this was a tragic update. During my meetings, I would toggle between Original Sound for Musicians during a musical number, and toggle it off for spoken word portions of the event. Now I need to leave another window open so I can switch back and forth - really clutters the desktop and adds a layer of unnecessary confusion that can lead to poor performance. It would be very helpful if Zoom gave the users the opportunity to restore the toggle at the top left corner.

[vajrap]

I agree with everyone that the loss of the toggle button on the main Zoom screen is a huge disappointment. I need to turn original sound ON briefly when I ring a bell to start and end a meditation (so that the full bell sound is heard, including the sound tailing off), but except for that I want original sound OFF because I don't want the sound of my HVAC system kicking on to be heard when I'm unmuted to talk. Can the convenient toggle at the top corner please be restored? It's too cumbersome to have to open and close the audio settings pane and navigate that.

[vajrap]

Yes, I too need to be able to toggle it on and off during a meeting depending on whether I'm giving a talk or playing a meditation bell sound. The new format is a serious encumbrance compared to the simple toggle on the main screen. Please restore that functionality.

[NickA]

Apparently I'm not the only one who sees this as an "update" that makes things more difficult.  They really should check with people who use it and switch often between the two before they make this kind of change.  

I do mentoring for audio students and we constantly need to switch it on and off, so this is VERY inconvenient. 

Bad move Zoom!!

[cosylaurel]

I agree it is a complete pain that original sound for musicians can no longer be toggled on and off with a click. I've recently paid for a Zoom account and this feels like such a retrograde step - please restore it to it's original, helpful functionality, Zoom!

[sendaba]

I have the same issue here. It is nice to have "original sound for musicians" as a default option, but there should still be an easy way to switch it on and off during sessions. I lead meditation classes too and only need the original sound when ringing the bell, but I want to filter to be on all other times. Nobody has the time to change the whole audio settings each time the want to turn original sound on or off. This really sucks.

[lsnyder1421]

Zoom, please return the ability for users to toggle the original sound for musicians on and off as they were able to before. Please fix this immediately. Thank you!

[jenmarie]

I have been using Zoom to lead meditation and yoga classes full-time since the start of the pandemic. I need access to the original sound toggle button in order to ring bells and do periods of chanting at the end of class without the hassle of having to go into Audio settings to locate the menu item each time. It's one thing to have to tolerate the relentless addition of new features that crowd the original interface (don't get me going on the ✨ AI Assistant ✨ harassment), but now to have a feature that I actually make use of *subtracted* is especially irritating. Not a happy customer.

[WillCaminada]

I was surprised and slightly annoyed with this update like everyone else. I just found that the easier path to turn on and off is to click the upward narrow at the bottom menu where it says AUDIO ^ - then click Original Sound For Musicians and when you want to go back to default, you click Noise Removal (default) - it's 1 more click than before but easier than going into Settings > Audio etc... - I do prefer the way it was before, on the screen at the top, easy to see, just one click, so please Zoom return to what it was! Anyway, hope this helps! 

[melfers]

Zoom support - please change this back to allow us to toggle original sound for musicians on/off on the meeting screen like it was before. Why did you change this? I use it for my business just like many others on this thread.

[Laserdude]

Like many others I find this change to be a significant setback. It has permanently broken my workflow because the "accepted solution" does not work for my use case.

I use Zoom on a Mac and I use AppleScript to toggle Original Sound for Musicians on and off. Zoom doesn't really support AppleScript (it would be great if it did), but many apps, like Zoom, can be scripted to some degree anyway using "System Events" to access items using accessibility APIs. The old way put a toggle button for "Original sound for musicians" in the window that the Accessibility APIs could "click" on single command. However, the Audio button in the window controls isn't always visible and when it is not visible you can't script it. You can get around this problem in Settings by choosing "Meetings and webinars" turn on "Keep meeting controls visible" in the controls section. But it really doesn't help because the temporary menu that opens is completely invisible to the accessibility APIs so it cannot be scripted. Hence there is no way for me to use the new 2-click "shortcut" to access this setting.

Could I change the script to do this the long way by opening Zoom settings, select the audio section, select the audio mode I want and close the window? Perhaps. However I am using Zoom in the background and Zoom always puts its Settings window in front of everything else and I don't want this flashing up in the middle of a meeting every time I use the script to switch from a person speaking to some sort of musical presentation, or vice-versa.

Please either change it back the way it was or put these commands on actual menus that are available to the accessibility APIs.

In the meantime I am trying to find a way to go back to Zoom version 6.5.12.

[rhythmandtruth]

I hope they fix this! I am a music therapist and deliver virtual sessions online and constantly need to change original sound on and off when clients share or when I'm playing live. Flow is everything and lots of time is wasted with awkward silence while I have to do extra steps to change the settings. Fingers crossed!