Forum Zoom #4, Friday, Feb 16, 2024, 18:00 UTC, 1:00 pm EST.

[dak]

dak, you are amazing with your detail !!!

You were a great help to me today, on the Zoom Meeting with that "musician setting" that kept toggling On/Off without me knowing about it and how to fix it.

Thanks -- John

I just found the following resource:

https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0059985

If you create a basic account (no cost), you can fiddle around with your settings outside of an active Zoom session.

 

[micahcowan]

I tend to have a better grasp of how computers behave than humans. Funny thing is that my Zoom client on Linux does not even have that "original sound for musicians" setting (I don't think I have stereo available either).

Oh hey! Another Linux user! Nice! ...Although to be fair, I'm not sure I even qualify as that anymore. I use Linux mostly via WSL on Windows these days (except for work, where I just use it through an ssh session from an iTerm2 window on Mac OS.

 

[Rodney]

I think https://zoom.us/test offers you to test your setup without actually joining a meeting. The test session lasts only for about a minute or so and is pretty annoying, but in contrast to an actual session, you hear what you are producing. The one thing you need to be careful of is that this test session sets up your video and audio and then states "everything is working" with a popup window with the single button "End Test". Don't press that button but ignore the popup: this is the echo setup you need for actually checking your audio quality. So play your accordion and check what you are hearing back in response. While the session is on, you can actually click the hatchet next to your microphone or camera symbol and change settings around (like your audio source and the infamous "original sound for musicians" check mark, assuming you have it). As long as you leave the "End Test" popup alone

Thanks dak. Zoom downloaded successfully and the meeting test seems to be working, in that I could see myself and a list of 4 items: microphone, speaker, front camera and back camera that each was ticked. There was no ‘End Test Button’ but there was a ‘Done’ button that actually ended the test, so I did it all again! The pop-up re-offered 2 options: no audio and wi-fi so I clicked the Wi-fi button. The test list remained silent and on screen for about 15 minutes until I clicked the ‘x’ to close the window but it closed the test session exactly like the ‘done’ button. I did see an audio button at the top of the display but it was inaccessible while the tick list was still open.

 

[JerryPH]

I had a nice time, thanks for hosting Tom!

And yes, Zoom is not really musician friendly, I took several months to get my setup under control... but it works very well and has a few extras tossed in. I'll be using that setup for the March Zoom meeting if it happens on a day/time that I can attend.

If you want to go next level and have an Apple/MAC set up and want to mimic my setup:





And before anyone mentions it, no, I'm not really an Apple fan, but the MAC Mini that I bought works remarkably well for this and is tiny and quiet, perfect for upstairs use in a small area.

 

[Rodney]

I had a nice time, thanks for hosting Tom!

And yes, Zoom is not really musician friendly, I took several months to get my setup under control... but it works very well and has a few extras tossed in. I'll be using that setup for the March Zoom meeting if it happens on a day/time that I can attend.

If you want to go next level and have an Apple/MAC set up and want to mimic my setup:





And before anyone mentions it, no, I'm not really an Apple fan, but the MAC Mini that I bought works remarkably well for this and is tiny and quiet, perfect for upstairs use in a small area.

Thanks Jerry, every bit of guidance helps!