SOUND ON SOUND

[Miket123]

Hi All

I'm not sure if this is in the correct place, but one member of our small ukulele group has an issue. When meeting up on Zoom, we share picked tunes on our ukes, but one member's uke sounds pretty much muted when she plays.

We can all hear her speak ok, but when she plays, there is almost no sound at all. I suggested she switched over to her iPad, thinking it would solve the problem, but exactly the same problem.
When she sang along to her picking, we could hear more of the uke playing

None of the others has this problem.
She is using a built-in webcam on a new Lenovo Windows PC and a fairly new iPad with built-in mic.

It has me completely puzzled

Any ideas would be welcomed

many thanks
Mike

[blinddrew]

I guess the first thing to do would be to check the zoom settings. Under the advanced audio settings there is an option to select for music, and then on the main screen there's the option to turn on original sound.
If those are already selected then the next step is probably to look at the mic position relative to voice and instrument.

[shufflebeat]

Failing that Marshall 4x12" is always a safe bet.

On reflection, don't listen to me, listen to Drew ^^^.

[Miket123]

Thanks for the quick response

Firstly, neither the iPad nor the PC zoom audio settings are on mute - we can clearly hear her when speaking. This also suggests to me that the position of the camera mic on the PC and the iPad are ok.

I did look at the audio settings, but I could find nothing to allow a change for a musical instrument or for music. I did go into the 'advanced' section but nothing there either.
Would it be possible to post a screengrab of what you are suggesting, please so I can compare it to what I can see?

So, I'm not sure where to go from here - any suggestions welcome

Many thanks
Mike

[shufflebeat]

This thread may be of some help. There are others but "Zoom" is an awkward one to search as it's also a brand name.

https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=73675#p706111

[Murray B]

it's worth looking at the Suppress Background Noise settings - needs to be on Low otherwise Zoom interprets any sustained notes or a rhythmic pattern as something to filter out.

These options appear in the audio settings menu in the meeting interface or in the preferences section (on a Mac)

[CS70]

Failing that Marshall 4x12" is always a safe bet.

On reflection, don't listen to me, listen to Drew ^^^.

No, no, I concur: a Marshall 4x12 is always a safe bet :lol:

[CS70]

Would it be possible to post a screengrab of what you are suggesting, please so I can compare it to what I can see?

Perhaps you have an old version of Zoom?

On PC (Settings is the small gear icon on the top):

[Miket123]

Thanks to all who came up with advice.

I did have an old version of Zoom, now updated and I have set the 'Suppress background noise' to low and have clicked the 'Turn on original sound' setting for Music and professional audio and set it to echo.

Did I need to click on Hi-Fi music mode as well in that menu?.

I will test this out on Thursday when we meet and hopefully, I will see some improvements
Thanks again for all your help

Cheers
Mike

[blinddrew]

The HiFi option is good too if your bandwidth is sufficient. :thumbup:

[Miket123]

Update:

I did try Zoom again with the changes and newer version, but no, it was just the same as before almost no sound at all

I did think this was all a little strange and not at all logical so decided to try and eliminate something from the equation.
I had a go with Skype and voila, sound back on and uke was playing clearly. I'm not sure why this should make a difference. I would really prefer to use Zoom as I have 3 cameras running concurrently and I can't do that with Skype unless I have 3 separate accounts.

If anyone has any more ideas as to why this should be happening on Zoom, I'd appreciate a heads up as it makes no sense to me atm.

Many thanks for the input so far

Cheers
Mike

[blinddrew]

Zoom is set to pick up the right microphone right? It's not been switched to a webcam accidentally?
Also a screenshot of exactly what your zoom audio settings might help.

[Miket123]

The bit I'm struggling with is that the issue occurred on both iPad and the PC with a webcam, so it's not isolated to the mic or webcam on the PC only, it happened on two devices using Zoom.
It seems that switching to Skype on the PC sorted the issue, but I would still prefer to be using Zoom as I can connect more cameras to show techniques.

When you asked for me to post a screengrab of the Zoom settings, did you mean mine as the host or my friend who is having the problems?

Sorry if this is going on too long, but it is something I'd really like to be able to sort out and thanks for your help so far

Cheers
Mike

[blinddrew]

Sorry, your friend who's having the problems.

[Funkyflash5]

I think I've spotted the issue, it is your friend with the problem who needs to change their settings in zoom. If I understand correctly they can hear you just fine, but you cant hear their playing because their settings are filtering music out as noise.