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Help! Zoom thinks my bass is background rumble

M

Maxra

Apr 28, 2023
94
41
#1
I'm having trouble making my acoustic 25" Gold Tone MiniBass audible on Zoom lesson sessions. It's strung with copper wound Aquila Flat Spiral strings so is acoustically quite loud for an ABG. However I suspect my HP laptop is identifying the bass frequencies as background rumble and filtering it out. We've tried toggling all the Zoom sound controls, and none make much difference. Any ideas please for how I can get Zoom to transmit my acoustic bass sound?

Thanks, Max
 
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#3
Since you said you tried all the audio settings, I am assuming that includes "original sound for musicians," which can be toggled in the upper right hand side of the screen rather than on the pull-up menu in the lower left. If you haven't tried that, you should give it a go. As far as I understand, it disables the native background-noise-suppression Zoom uses.
 
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#4
I second what @Teryup and @soulstew said. Make sure you have the "Original sound for musicians" on, and use a proper microphone attached to an audio interface, or even a halfway-decent USB mic should work. Your laptop mic, iPad/tablet mic, or phone mic are not going to pick up the bass frequencies well enough.

You can get a decent tabletop USB Mic for not too much money these days. Put it on the desk in front of you, set the gain so the signal is maxing out at about -6dB on the meters in Zoom, and it should pick up everything you say and everything you play.
 
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#5
soulstew said:
Since you said you tried all the audio settings, I am assuming that includes "original sound for musicians," which can be toggled in the upper right hand side of the screen rather than on the pull-up menu in the lower left. If you haven't tried that, you should give it a go. As far as I understand, it disables the native background-noise-suppression Zoom uses.
Click to expand...
This! You might have to go into "audio settings" (on a Mac it's accessed via the little caret next to the microphone). Once you turn it on, the option will appear in the upper right of the Zoom window. It's not just an issue of bass frequencies - if you try singing without that turned on, it probably won't come through. If you play music from your phone - even through an audio interface - it won't come through. The noise gate is blocking anything that doesn't sound like regular talking.
 
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#7
Thanks guys - I've taken what looks like the simplest course and ordered a 'new but unused' Mackie EM-USB mic from Ebay. If the built in PC laptop mic is somehow set not to accept sounds in a frequency range outside the human voice, then I'm probably just wasting time trying to get it to do so. This is just for taking bass lessons, so I don't need studio quality, just recognisable bass pitch, and with luck this cheapo mic should do that and pick up my voice recognisably for chat. All the best, Max
 
#8
Maxra said:
Thanks guys - I've taken what looks like the simplest course and ordered a 'new but unused' Mackie EM-USB mic from Ebay. If the built in PC laptop mic is somehow set not to accept sounds in a frequency range outside the human voice, then I'm probably just wasting time trying to get it to do so. This is just for taking bass lessons, so I don't need studio quality, just recognisable bass pitch, and with luck this cheapo mic should do that and pick up my voice recognisably for chat. All the best, Max
Click to expand...
The thing about "not the human voice" is the Zoom noise gate, which you can disable by setting up "original sound for musicians" - you should be good even without a different mic, though hopefully the mic you ordered will help too.
 
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#9
Maxra said:
I'm having trouble making my acoustic 25" Gold Tone MiniBass audible on Zoom lesson sessions. It's strung with copper wound Aquila Flat Spiral strings so is acoustically quite loud for an ABG. However I suspect my HP laptop is identifying the bass frequencies as background rumble and filtering it out. We've tried toggling all the Zoom sound controls, and none make much difference. Any ideas please for how I can get Zoom to transmit my acoustic bass sound?

Thanks, Max
Click to expand...
Zoom has a selection in the audio settings to eliminate background sound. Turn it OFF. I found out the hard way that it does not pickup acoustic instruments or even vocals with that sucker on. My Mother passed 3-yeaars ago at the age of 94, and our extended families are cast far and wide. So they set up Zoom to broadcast the funeral. I sang the song, "Bye Mom" by Chris Jansen at her funeral and it was broadcast to everyone, including my youngest son in Australia, on Zoom. It was about 3-minutes of me singing a song that couldn't be heard and my oldest son playing the guitar that "couldn't be heard" to it. So only the folks there at the funeral heard it. **Warning** it's an absolute tear jerker of a song, but was very apropos. That "background noise" switch is death on music regardless of what mic you use. Just turn the sucker off!
 
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#10
hieronymous said:
The thing about "not the human voice" is the Zoom noise gate, which you can disable by setting up "original sound for musicians" - you should be good even without a different mic, though hopefully the mic you ordered will help too.
Click to expand...
Thanks Hieronomous - yeah., the problem is we've tried all the Zoom controls including that one, 'we' being me and a bass teacher who knows a lot more about this stuff than I do. I suspect the built in laptop mics, but we'll see if the USB mic works. I think that one has no noise reduction built in, many do.
 
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#11
Hmmm.... NONE of the standard suggestions appear to work for this, suggesting Windows/Zoom sound controls may not be working as they should. Something is still filtering out bass notes, apparently including those in the same frequency range as my voice. I have a wide frequency range USB mic with no noise filter, but it still does it with that. With Windows 11, so far as I can see all you can do with noise reduction is turn it down, I don't think you can turn it off.
 
#12
Maxra said:
Hmmm.... NONE of the standard suggestions appear to work for this, suggesting Windows/Zoom sound controls may not be working as they should. Something is still filtering out bass notes, apparently including those in the same frequency range as my voice. I have a wide frequency range USB mic with no noise filter, but it still does it with that. With Windows 11, so far as I can see all you can do with noise reduction is turn it down, I don't think you can turn it off.
Click to expand...
Did you update Zoom to the latest version?
 
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#13
Maxra said:
Hmmm.... NONE of the standard suggestions appear to work for this, suggesting Windows/Zoom sound controls may not be working as they should. Something is still filtering out bass notes, apparently including those in the same frequency range as my voice. I have a wide frequency range USB mic with no noise filter, but it still does it with that. With Windows 11, so far as I can see all you can do with noise reduction is turn it down, I don't think you can turn it off.
Click to expand...
Another idea - if you play just regular music off of your phone into the mic, can it be heard?
 
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#15
Maxra said:
I tried all your suggestions guys, and none of them worked - I'm now told apparently because it's Win11 sound that's broken re Zoom. Thanks for your efforts, though. Eventually this YouTube vid fixed it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOvbLYuSPqs

If you're having probs with acoustic instruments, Zoom and Win 11, try this one.

Max
Click to expand...
Glad you found a solution! Zoom can be frustrating enough when it’s working properly…
 
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