Terrible Sound for Musicians All of a Sudden

Could my guitar problem have spread to pianos?

I am a musician who participates in regular Zoom sessions with friends. But last week, my friends informed me that they could no longer hear my guitar, even though my voice was coming through just fine. A quick Zoom mic check confirmed the problem, showing no sound coming from my guitar. Yes, I use Original Sound, and know for a fact that I had not made any changes in my mic or speaker settings in recent memory. Several other guitar players have reported similar problems on this forum. (See "Lost Original Sound" #13443035.) The consensus seems to be that Zoom is suppressing "background sound," including guitars and violins. Since I discovered this problem, I have tried disabling all of the noise controls I can find on my PC, but my guitar remains silent on Zoom. I’d appreciate any help you can provide, both for me and the piano players.

hi emiline731,

what zoom client and app version are you and your students using?

current releases as of 2/16/2023:

windows February 6, 2023 version 5.13.7 (12602)

mac February 6, 2023 version 5.13.7 (15481)

ios February 6, 2023 version 5.13.7 (15481)

android February 6, 2023 version 5.13.7 (11962)

what audio settings do you ask your students to use, i.e. automatically adjust microphone volume, original sound, high fidelity music mode, echo cancellation, signal processing by windows audio device drivers?

do your students enable original sound in your meetings in addition to selecting original sound and other audio settings?

when you play your piano, do your students experience any issues hearing your piano?

thanks,

eliot

I wonder if this is playing a role in the issue?

Prerequisites for adjusting audio settings- 
Enabling original sound and high fidelity music mode

 

• Basic account with credit card, or paid account.

 

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https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360046244692-Configuring-professional-audio-settings-for-Zoom-Meetings  

Hi @Emiline731 @neilnfw @VPianoStudio and everyone else on this thread! IF you are experiencing one of the following with Original Sound in Zoom, you may have experienced one of the following issues:

• instruments’ audio can not be picked up

• can hear the speech but can’t hear the background music

• quiet sounds or high-frequency sounds can not be picked up

• audio distortion and loss of background audio when doing Screen Share

This could be one of a couple different reason of issues here: 

• Depending on your Brand of your Desktop, some come pre-configured audio controls, for example, attempt to disable as it maybe interfering with Zooms original sound feature:

  • “MaxxAudio“ on Dell

  • “Bang & Olufsen“ on HP

  • “LG Smart Assistant“ on LG

  • “Realtek Audio Console“

    • Look in the Apps --> 'Realtek Audio Console'. If you were to open this, select 'Microphone Array', and you should see various options for 'Microphone Effects'.

      • You can changed 'Multi-presenter conference call' to 'Off' and the should be no longer muted.

      • Speaker Noise Cancellation (voice call) in the Realtek Audio Console. If this is enabled, disable it

  • “Dolby Atmos“

    • Check if there is a pre-installed Dolby Atmos application on your computer. "Auto Profile" setting was enabled and there was a "Voice" profile. If there is such a program, turn off the setting in the lower right corner and turn on the dynamic profile.

• Some of the items listed above are pre-configured on some desktops, please attempt to disable other similar audio control software

• You can also update audio drivers. If Windows doesn't find a new driver, you can try looking for one on the device manufacturer's website and follow their instructions.

• Disable audio enhancements Turn Off/On OS driver's Audio Enhancements 

  • Right-click on the volume icon on the taskbar and then click “Open Sound settings” to open the Setting dialog. 

     

    (windows 10)
    

     

Click “Sound Control Panel” to open the Sound dialog.`              

 

 

Under the Playback or Recording tab, right-click on your speaker/microphone and then click Properties. You should now see the Speakers/Microphone Properties dialog.

 

 

Under the Advanced tab, you can see a checkbox shows “Enable audio enhancements“, please check or uncheck the Checkbox as your need(to solve the no-sound or freeze issue caused by the dell’s audio driver, please uncheck the “enable audio enhancements“).

 

 

 

If the “Enable audio enhancements” option is missing in the “Advanced“ Tab, please try to find whether exist an “Enhancements“ Tab, if so please check the “disable all enhancements” option as shows in the following figure.

If both the “Enable audio enhancements”(under the Advanced tab) option and “disable all enhancements“(under the Enhancements tab) option are missing, it’s likely because your selected microphone/speaker doesn’t support them, you don’t need to do anything for this device.

Notice: There is a known freeze issue caused by Dell’s new audio driver, in order to fix this issue, please make sure that all the audio device’s(all microphones and all speaker) “audio enhancements” feature are disabled, not only the current used device. 

Let me know if this information helps improve your Zoom Original Audio experience! 

Having this same issue in the MacOS world.  In a nutshell:

Configuration:

Hear! Hear! Couldn't agree more with you.  I am a piano teacher.  I can't hear my students' playing neither can my students hear my playing.  I have been having this issue for the past two months.  What upset me the most is the way to reach tech support is via email only unless you are a business user.  I have been emailing back and forth with tech support for two months and they keep telling me to turn original sound or performance mode on or check my mic and speaker mode. I would like to get this resolved too.