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Double Bass Suggestions for zoom meeting sound?

s van order

s van order

Oct 4, 2012
390
453
Delaware
#1
Hi all,

Recently this was discussed but I hope to get further guidance. I am having trouble with the sound of my cellos (wood or carbon fiber) using the zoom meeting app on ipad. I upgraded the mic and set to no compression and flat eq. It seems the mic is active. Away from zoom, it records really well. But people over zoom continue to report the sound cuts out and is “underwater.” Voices are fine. Internet speed on both ends is high, latency seems ok. Over my laptop using a SnowBall mic I heard they sound fine but I have no webcam installed. Any of you having this problem? Any suggestions? Thanks.
 
#2
Since the mic does well for recording, the problem must lie elsewhere. We really don't know what happens to our digital sound when it goes through the Rube-Goldberg contraption that begins at your microphone and ends at someone else's transducer many miles away. What kinds of loss occur when software and networks are designed for maximum throughput and not for sound quality? It's out of our control.

I had a bass lesson on Monday using Facetime on my wife's iPad. The sound was adequate but not great.
 
#3
AGCurry said:
Since the mic does well for recording, the problem must lie elsewhere. We really don't know what happens to our digital sound when it goes through the Rube-Goldberg contraption that begins at your microphone and ends at someone else's transducer many miles away. What kinds of loss occur when software and networks are designed for maximum throughput and not for sound quality? It's out of our control.

I had a bass lesson on Monday using Facetime on my wife's iPad. The sound was adequate but not great.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Similar experience with FaceTime and my lesson last week. Teacher is used to compression and other issues with sound. Does a lot of visual checking.
 
#4
I have used Facetime, Skype and Zoom with my students for the last 2 weeks and on my desktop, tablet and phone. The audio quality varies tremendously, from terrible (almost impossible to teach) to great (no problem at all).
There are too many factors involved but what I found works great is to have the student monitor with headphones (to hear me or the audio I am sending) have the bass amp close to the computer they are using and having a dedicated metronome (not an app on the same device they are using to connect). Minimizing external sounds is crucial since it seems that they not only get in the way but take somehow audio bandwidth or conversion resources and the quality suffers.
 
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#5
When we were testing JamKazam, we found that the JK native metronome only caused confusion because the beat that could be heard on one participant's computer could also feed through that computer's mic to the other person, who was also using the JK native metronome. That was confusing enough, so after that testing we turned off the JK native metronomes. Then we tested with independent metronomes on both sides, and found that even though they were using the same timing, they were impossible to synch up due to latency.

In diagnostic testing, we were both were showing about 20ms of latency. Independent metronomes are the ultimate test, if you cannot synch them up, you won't be able to synch two simultaneous musical participants.

Keep in mind, we were testing about 2500 miles apart. Shorter distances should have less latency, so it's worth testing before giving up.
 
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#6
s van order said:
Hi all,

Recently this was discussed but I hope to get further guidance. I am having trouble with the sound of my cellos (wood or carbon fiber) using the zoom meeting app on ipad. I upgraded the mic and set to no compression and flat eq. It seems the mic is active. Away from zoom, it records really well. But people over zoom continue to report the sound cuts out and is “underwater.” Voices are fine. Internet speed on both ends is high, latency seems ok. Over my laptop using a SnowBall mic I heard they sound fine but I have no webcam installed. Any of you having this problem? Any suggestions? Thanks.
Click to expand...
I just taught a lesson over Zoom - when my student's playing got too loud, Zoom lowered the volume to almost inaudible. We changed microphone settings on his side to tell it _not_ to automatically adjust the volume and we tried other settings as well - no change in results whatsoever.

-S-
 
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#9
Both people need to wear headphones. Using the speakers is asking for trouble. The software can identity and prevent a feedback loop, but doing that means adjusting levels, cutting out each person, and delaying the sound. Problem. Use the headphones. And use the mute switch on the mic when the other person is performing if being silent isn't enough. Sound needs to be one person at a time.
 
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#10
JKos said:
Check out the sound settings suggestions here: Skype or Zoom for online lessons which one is better?

- John
Click to expand...
Thanks. I did follow up on that thread and found zoom.com on laptop has these options and can get a decent sound. IPad app does not have the same options, more limited, hence my problem there. Looks like I have to buy a webcam and go to laptop for zoom. My laptop has no webcam and I wanted to save the expense.
 
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#13
An old friend (sax player) has been doing, as in workgroups, audio RnD since at least 2000. Almost all work has focused on voice. Little, if any, equipment has been engineered for anything above or below normal vocal range. However things change quickly in his world and we haven’t discussed this for at least 5 years.
 
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#16
Follow up: I used my Windows 10 laptop and a Blue Snowball usb mic, downloaded the zoom client meeting program, and under “audio” clicked the “preserve original sound” setting and disabled a few other settings. It worked. My tester told me the cello sounded quite good, even the low F (it’s a 5-string carbon fiber) was rich. This zoom client set up is available for all levels of users, even the free level.

The catch is these audio settings are not available on the ios app for zoom, and the sound is quite poor, even with a decent iPad mic like the Shure MV88.

Thanks to all of you for your tips, and dylanjohnson for sending me down this path.
 
#17
Im having trouble with zoom with bass being heard to other members voice is fine. Using TAB 6 also windows 10 laptop.Other guitar club members dont seem to have the same issues. Is down to Bass frequency?Tried placing Tablet on top of Vox Adio BS Amp, To the side, in front.
 
#18
I use a decent external usb mic and laptop and used the zoom client meeting download to set the audio parameters to “preserve original sound” and turned off any compression. That has allowed low notes on cello (down to C2) to pass thru clearly. They were dropping out before. Btw, zoom does not offer the “preserve original sound” option on iPad app, so the low notes vanish among other sound issues for cello. FaceTime on iPad has this problem too.
 
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#19
Unfortunately, you need to use the laptop because you have to turn on "Enable Original Sound", also disable the settings for "Suppress Persistent Background Noise" and "Suppress Intermittent Background Noise" under Audio Settings - Advanced.
Both participants MUST use headphones.
It also helps to make sure you both have nothing else in your house using your internet and wifi connections. Close all your browsers on all computers and streaming TVs, etc. And check your internet speed to make sure you are getting the speed you are paying for.
Good luck.
 
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#20
Just like with JamKazam, if you can use a wired Ethernet connection instead of WiFi, there will be noticeably less latency...

I have trouble with that, due to cabling from the outside, my router is in a remote section of the house where I cannot easily wire to it. So, unless it's an extremely important session, I'm using WiFi, but at a cost of usually about 20-60ms latency.
 

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