Open Mic Tech Talk - How to Setup Zoom

Community Open Mic Events Tech Talk - How to setup Zoom / Audio / Video
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Posted by Rossco1/ Jason April 13, 2021, 03:30:26 pm

All,

Ivan (SillySock7) did below a few weeks ago…but I’ve not had chance to post. So over to you Ivan:-

Video
The essential video settings are pretty straightforward, and can be found under Settings > Video. Pick the source you’d like to use from the dropdown menu and make sure to check the box labeled HD to get the best possible quality out of your recording device:

The rest of the settings are mostly personal preference and can be left as is. One thing worth checking while still in the Video tab however is to make sure the checkbox to “See myself as the active speaker while speaking” is activated. If it is disabled you will see the host on the main feed instead of seeing yourself while performing if you are not actively being spotlighted by the host.

Background & Effects

Please ensure Background is set to None for optimum clarity when performing.
On no account should you use the Blur virtual background.

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Audio
Zoom offers the option to ‘Turn On Original Sound’ which disables various filters and noise suppression. This option can be found under Settings > Audio > Music and Professional Audio. Once you activate it and restart zoom you’ll be able to see a blue button in the top left corner when you start a meeting. It is also highly recommended to turn on ‘High fidelity music mode’ as well to get the best possible audio quality output:

It should be noted that if you are using an audio interface as the source which has multiple inputs, Zoom only supports two inputs simultaneously. These inputs are transmitted and mixed as mono by default, so if you are planning on using a stereo setup the ‘Stereo audio’ option needs to be enabled here also.

Once Zoom has been restarted and a meeting has been started, a blue button will appear in the upper-left corner of the window:

Clicking the button will enable Original Sound and the small arrow to the right opens a dropdown menu which will allow you to pick your input source.

Also notice the ‘Record’ button at the bottom of the screen. This lets you record yourself, which is a great way to test your audio/video equipment, audio output levels, guitar pre-amp settings, etc. ahead of time. Once you are done recording and leave the meeting Zoom will automatically convert your video for you and conveniently open a window with the relevant files.

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All I have taken the liberty to move this across from the Forum and will add any additional points that were raised on the thread. So will update it throughout the day if required.

After much thought and consideration, with respect to my piece on DAW/OBS/Zoom as it is specifically designed to aid folks enhance their “audio” for our Open Mic events, I think it would sit better here with the same prefix as this topic. Most likely I’ll move it tomorrow.

Open Mic Tech Talk - " subject " sorry can’t use chevrons as I prefer, they are control chars!

Here it is readily available to those wishing to do Open Mics and set up this way and it will therefore be easier to find than tucked away in the Tips section.

LDV / C2U - this post can be deleted on launch date.

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@tobyjenner these parts should probably be edited out :slight_smile:

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No worries Ivan and thanks. Planned to do some trimming but it was just an initial lift and shift to get it into place. I have too many word docs in various states waiting to be moved ! I didn’t want to add to that clutter lol :rofl:

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OK I have reviewed both the Open Mic How To posts. This one has all in info included above. The fine tweaks to settings that were flushed out during discussions, have been added or were already present in Ivan’s original guide. So no more to add and its oven ready,

Had a trawl through Trevor’s post and there was no additional technical information there, regarding set up. Initially it was more about “directing the OM” for want of a better description and then diversified into setting up for Livestream. I would suggest that we leave that side of things out of the new Community. And if Justin ever wanted to reboot the Guitar Show initiative, we can deal with it then. In fact I would question whether the historical LiveStream show needs migrating at all. now its seemed to died a death. Just MHO.

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I’ve been wondering about the Guitar Show also but I’m guessing it has a lot to do with copyright issues. Streaming platforms (Twitch especially) have been cracking down hard on streamers lately when it comes to use of copyrighted material. If we were all playing originals it wouldn’t be an issue but since we’re doing covers there may be some legal nuances involved so it’s probably not worth the trouble for Justin.

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Very good points Ivan and likely to be true. Maybe Adi gets copyright flags on the OMs on YouTube when he post them. But I suspect Justin has just been far too busy to revisit with all that has been going this year.

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Yes pretty much 90% of content gets copyright claim. For me it means zip as I am not seeing me making any pennies out of youtube. For Justin obviously no commercial value to do those.

There is a way to fight against a copyright claim and question youtube about it if it’s harmless, you are not expected to make bucket loads of money and if it’s a cover. I raised my claim against youtube for one of the videos to see if I’m going to be successful. They have ridiculously long time to reply to someone’s claim so will let you know once I have it in my mailbox.

I wonder for Justin’s song lessons channel is he not making any penny out of those lessons and getting flagged as a copyright claim or is there a way he gets around it?

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Adi I have experienced how slow they are to respond but it would seem to just about everything they do. My Ascension Day video that I posted in 2016 got flagged last year, as not suitable for children, as I’d used news footage from the UK miners conflict in the early 80s. I had no objections to that but nearly 6 years later.? For the same reason a 20 sec video of a Corn field got flagged, go figure !

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It didn’t have Theresa May running through it, did it?

:open_mouth:

Keith

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Jus’ checkin’ :wink:

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Ah that’s where I went wrong Wheat not Corn !

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Does anyone know if you can run the same Zoom meeting with the same user link on two devices?

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You should be able to

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Thanks Adi,

I’m just thinking if I do perform a song then I would want to use my phone for the performance but then my laptop for the rest of the evening.

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When I did it I used two separate accounts but it shouldn’t really matter if it’s the same account twice or not. Remember about muting the laptop while playing in front of the phone and you need to tweak settings a bit on your phone to allow for original sound so no noise cancellation occurs.

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Man this community is so helpful. I’m really looking forward to digging into the advanced portion of how to use obs with my daw eventually since I’ve needed to learn how to do that forever. Thank you for this

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Jak

I’d suggest using this approach for your first Open Mic and experiment with DAW/OBS afterwards. Best to get some stable settings and ensure you have audio + video for the event. Good thing about Zoom is the ability to set a meeting up on your own, so you can check things out before hand. Any issues shout up.

That goes for anyone else joining the OM for the first time. :smiley:

Cheers

Toby
:sunglasses:

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Sorry for the newbie question, but here goes: do you have to have a paid Zoom membership to use advanced settings like “enable original sound”? I only have the basic (i.e. free) membership and can’t seem to find that setting control. BTW, using Zoom through the iOS app.
Thanks!

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No, Mick, I am signed up with a free account and have access to that setting on my audio settings. I access that typically on the app on my Windows PC/LT. You can also login on the Zoom website and adjust settings there. Perhaps try the website route if you are not seeing that option under Audio Settings on the app.