The Steel Guitar Forum

Has anybody found a way to get decent, or even passable sound in a Zoom (or other) video conference?

We tried holding our monthly song circle via Zoom last night. With only seven people (most in or near Austin, one from the New Orleans area, and one from near Manchester, England), the sound was something far below execrable. The compression made digital hold music sound good by comparison. It was like the musical equivalent of Vogon poetry!

People were being good about muting themselves, so that wasn't the problem. It was Mothers' Day, and it seemed as though network problems might be a contributing factor. (But I did try a speed test immediately afterwards, and my connection was up to spec.)

Surely, this can't be as completely impossible as it seemed. Do any of you know a good solution, or even a mediocre one? Thanks in advance....

--Al Evans

Was everybody using mikes built into their webcams? First upgrade would be decent standalone mikes (that use 3 pin cables, not USB) into audio interfaces. Something like SM 57/58 or Audio technica 2000 series, but nontrivial spending compared to $80 webcams. I think people have to look at upload speed that their ISP plans offer

Gene Tani wrote:Was everybody using mikes built into their webcams? First upgrade would be decent standalone mikes (that use 3 pin cables, not USB) into audio interfaces. Something like SM 57/58 or Audio technica 2000 series, but nontrivial spending compared to $80 webcams. I think people have to look at upload speed that their ISP plans offer

Those are great suggestions for getting good sound. But what we're talking about here is truly atrocious sound, underwater accordions, far worse than the worst hold music you've ever had the misfortune to enjoy for a half-hour or so.

I'm just saying, the sound of a cheap iPhone video of a live gig would be WAY batter!

We'll be trying it again in June, with whatever technical improvements seem reasonable -- I've got to remember this is a song circle, not a presentation I am running. We can't demand that all the participants acquire special equipment.

Thanks for the suggestions!

--Al Evans

Here are a couple of thoughts.

Have each participant get a gaming headset. Online gamers talk to each other throughout their game experience. Many gaming headsets have noise canceling digital signal processing, or DSP, built-in. Here is a BestBuy link for noise cancelling gaming headsets: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/shop/noise ... ng-headset.

Run your microphone through a USB mixer. A mixer will give you more control over the sound reaching your computer. A mixer will use a pre-amp to boost the microphone signal and add equalization. You also gain the benefit of having more than one sound source if desired. Here is a USB powered, 5 input (one microphone, two stereo line) mixer for less than $60 US through Sweetwater: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... -502-mixer

Use a USB microphone. First generation USB microphones developed a bad reputation because they were cheap and sounded as cheap as they cost. Since mainline microphone manufacturers like Rode, Audio-Technica, Blue, Samson, Shure, Behringer and CAD have adapted their existing product lines for USB the quality, and cost, has risen to the point there is no difference in quality between a USB microphone and its XLR counter-part. This Audio-Technica AT2005USB can be used with XLR or USB and sells for about $80 US: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Audio-Tech ... rophone.gc

Last, use the XLR microphone you have with a XLR to USB adapter. Here is a premium one from Shure for $99 but other choices are available: https://www.amazon.com/Shure-X2U-XLR-to ... B001PPXFAG

I think it's the nature of the beast. I've noticed that on TV talk shows the sound quality drops when interviewing someone from home. Have you tried Google Hangouts? It might be better than Zoom.

There's alse Facebook's new Messenger Rooms, which reportedly doesn't require a Facebook account. I've heard that Skype also supports group meetings.

Google "Use Original Sound on Zoom". There are a few settings you need to change