Sound is awful

[karinestemarie]

Hi guys, 

  I just purchased Zoom for a year and I can't get a good sound. I have great internet but as soon as I play an instrument, or sing, the sound starts lagging on Zoom... I wanted to use this for work (which requires me to play and sing)... HELP! 

If I use an exterior microphone, it's even worse... Thanks...

[JesseWebConnect]

Hi Karin,

A few things you might try to improve your sound over Zoom (especially when using a musical instrument):

1. Close ALL other apps on your computer other than Zoom (especially things like DropBox and Internet browsers).

2. Get on a Wired Internet Connection with an Ethernet Cable (not WiFi, and turn the WiFi on your computer off). 

3. Turn on "Original Sound" in the audio settings menu and additionally make sure "High Fidelity Music Mode" as well as "Echo Cancellation" are checked.  When you do this, you can go back to the main Zoom window and see that in the top-left corner you can turn Original Sound on and off - turn it ON anytime you play an instrument. You may experiment with ON/OFF for your speaking depending on your mic setup and room.

4. Change the Background Noise Suppression setting to Low rather than Auto. This ensures minimal processing when Original Sound is OFF (maybe when speaking).

Let me know how it goes.
Cheers and may the music carry on!
-Jesse

[present_now]

My  guess is that buying a high-quality microphone will help. Note, I have no financial interest in any product including microphones but I do webinars and my Fortune 500 company / employer provided a snowball blue mic. 

(e.g., https://products.bestreviews.com/p/blue-microphones-snowball-ice-condenser-microphone-with-knox-pop-...