Can't hear students piano

[Shirecliff]

I teach piano on zoom. lately I cannot hear the piano while my students are playing.

[Mike_fpMA]

Yup, same. I've been talking with a Zoom engineer for over a year about this - no progress (in fact, it may be worse now). I'm on a Mac, my students are on Windows or iPhone, & their piano is COMPLETELY MUTED on some. I can hear them talking ok (albeit choppy). Yes, I use Original Sound with no noise suppression, headphones, mic, blah blah; all the usual recommendations. Zoom support has been totally unhelpful (I'll be surprised if someone there responds to this). You could try Google Meet - we are - it may not have the features, but at least I can hear!

[ChurchMusician]

thank you for the suggestion.  I will try Google Meet.  Yes.  Very frustrating.  

[MB88]

Same here, landed on Google meet. Very disappointed that Zoom is not helping the fix the problem.  

[ChurchMusician]

i am trying Google Meet now, but meeting participants still cannot hear my piano.  Suggestions?

[kerrikenya]

I'm having this same issue and it has gotten much worse in just the last couple weeks!  I teach piano lessons by zoom and with some students now, I can't hear them playing their piano hardly at all, though I can hear them speaking just fine!  I have a couple students that for 2 weeks now I haven't been able to hear them play almost anything and am going to lose them as students if I can't figure out how to make this work better!  Argh!!  Won't someone at Zoom do something?!?!

[Mike_fpMA]

I don't think Zoom cares. I had been talking with a Zoom support engineer for over a year about this very issue. I sent him recordings, everything. He's gone silent; I haven't heard from him in months.

Some of our students can hear and be heard perfectly. For others, the audio goes 100% silent when they're playing. We can't seem to match this behavior up to anything our students have.

Google Meet has pretty good audio. It's a step down in features, but at least it's not a complete failure like Zoom is.

[ChurchMusician]

are there suggestions for Google Meet settings?

[kerrikenya]

Thank you so much for the idea of Google Meet!  I will look into that!  Yes!  I am so frustrated!  I am about to lose these 2 students because I can't hear them at all, and yet I can hear several other students who still do zoom lessons perfectly!  So frustrating!  Thank you for the info and support!

[FinnEnglish]

I'm having the same issues, not on my end but with two students both of whom use Mac so it seems to be an issue with the onboard mic which is having the audio processed by Apple iOS and so the Zoom settings are useless. Either the students need to go into settings and change some things around (annoying and faffy) or Zoom can change the way it takes in the audio from the mic - i.e. without any audio processing. Seems like it's an issue that Zoom has caused, given it was working largely fine before recent updates.... 

[MB88]

Here is what I received from Zoom, and it worked last time I tried it a few days ago.  I think it was the mic mode that was not set right.  

Maria Theresa Luat [C] (Zoom)

Apr 17, 2023, 19:40 PDT

Hi there,
 
Good day! This is Maria from Zoom Support.
 
I understand that you're teaching piano and the mic does not picking up the sound of the piano. Let me help you.
 
First, you need to enable original sound in a meeting:
 

1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop client.
2. Start or join a meeting.
3. Connect to meeting audio with the Computer Audio option.
   In the top-left corner of the meeting window, the current status of the Original Sound for Musicians feature is indicated.
4. Click the Original Sound for Musicians button to toggle this on or off.
   A notification will appear, indicating if the feature is currently enabled or not.

Note: If you enable Original Sound for Musician in a meeting, all noise suppression is disabled. If you disable Original Sound for Musicians, the client reverts to the noise suppression setting that you chose in client settings, meaning it could be Auto / Low / Med / High.
 
Also, if original seetings was already enabled and did not fix the issue. It means, Mic Modesetting in the control panel was set to Voice Isolation.
 
Here's how to resolve it.
 

1. Open Mac Control Panel by clicking the icon on the top right of the screen
    
2. Click Mic Mode
    
3. Click Standard

 
 Kindly refer to the attached screenshots for your reference.
 
Please let me know if you need further assistance.
 
Thanks,
Maria

[Mike_fpMA]

Is that an older Mac? I don't have that setting (even when in a meeting). Regardless, other competitors' software works fine (and they don't even *have* an Original Sound setting).

This is not a new problem; I've experienced it for well over a year.

[MB88]

2019 MacBook Pro,   Ventura 13.3.1

[FinnEnglish]

That's great many thanks - Do you have the screenshots by the way? 

[MB88]

 

  

[MB88]

One has to be in a meeting for the Mic Mode choices to show up in the controls.

[ChurchMusician]

thank you.  I am a church musician and choir director.  I have tried to participate via Zoom (for a remote service during inclimate weather) or to teach parts to choir members via conference call or Zoom.  They cannot hear my piano at all.  I have tried Original Soud for Musicians -- to no avail.  This is very frustrating.  I purchased the Zoom upgrade hoping that it would provide me with the opportunity to receive support from Zoom.  But from what I am reading it sounds as though the Zoom technicians do not have answers either.  HELP!!

[Mike_fpMA]

I had a tough time getting the Zoom techs to even acknowledge a problem, and then just try to get them to fix it! For us for over a year, it's fixed; we can hear every note from pianos, brass, guitar, etc on both ends of a Zoom session. However, Original Sound is dependent upon the device and equipment used. At least one end must be using headphones; with open speakers on both ends you will get either highly objectionable feedback or the function just won't work.

If you'd like to jump on a zoom call, we can set up a time and I can walk you through the settings we use.