Does ‘echo cancellation’ do anything dire to the audio? I’m audience only in case that affects anything.
It just cuts instruments out, so audience hears muffled sound instead of nice and crisp
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If you are muted which, as an audience member, you should be, echo cancellation does nothing.
If you do have your mic enabled, echo cancellation will try to prevent your speakers feeding back to your microphone.
If you are in a low-latency situation, this causes, well, “feedback” usually in the form of a loud squealing tone. But online communication is never “low latency” so, in this case, it acts like a delay pedal and produces a series of echos which is very disruptive.
To prevent this, algorithms will try to identify and cancel out the sound from your speakers. This is never perfect and will always result in audible distortion, and is best avoided.
The way to avoid it is to use headphones so the sound from the speakers doesn’t get to the microphone. Then you can normally turn off echo cancellation.
Note that Bluetooth headphones/ear buds will create additional delay.
The very worst situation tends to be where you are using the laptop speakers and microphone, as the speakers and microphone are very close to each other and usually not very good quality.
A reminder: this only applies to people actively using their microphone in the Zoom call. In the case of an OM, this usually means the performer, MC, etc.
If you are an audience member, you should have your mic off and it will not impact you.
Cheers,
Keith
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Just typed my “quick point” below and it wasn’t so quick! 
Therefore I thought a quick summary at the top might be handy:
Echo, when in reference to Zoom, is when other’s hear their own voice back after it has come out your speakers and back into your microphone. Echo cancellation in Zoom (and other videoconference apps) aims to prevent that.
- Echo cancellation should always be enabled if you are using speakers which can be heard by your microphone and you intend to unmute whilst others speak during a Zoom meeting.
- Echo cancellation in Zoom’s world intends to cancel out other people’s audio, not your own, when sending audio back to others.
- Zoom’s Echo cancellation may impact your sound when enabled if other people make noise whilst you’re trying to be heard as it will subtract their noise from your audio when sending it back out, therefore sometimes making your audio sound thin or possibly even ducked out completely.
- If you’re always muted when other’s talk or your mic can’t hear your speakers (e.g. you’re listening through headphones) then echo cancellation isn’t required (although Zoom’s EC does tend to boost your audio and add some EQ when it’s enabled & original sound is not enabled, which can be useful at times
).
Therefore, my recommendation for OMs is to:
- Use headphones if you can (so you can disable echo cancellation in Zoom, if you wish).
- If you have to (or prefer to) use “open” speakers, then you need to have EC enabled (otherwise you will need to constantly unmute then re-mute, each time you have to speak, so as not to impact others when they talk).
- Always try to mute regardless when you’re not speaking, as that is good practice anyway
(my original message - feel free to ignore 
)
Just thought I’d make a small point of clarification with regards to Zoom’s use of Echo Cancellation. Yes, Zoom is processing what your microphone is picking up from your speakers, but only in relation to what it receives from others online, i.e. the purpose is to cancel out other people’s audio so they don’t hear their own voices back from you when they speak. As Keith mentioned, Zoom - and other similar videoconference apps - apply an algorithm to subtract the incoming audio from your audio when sending it back out to others. Understandably, this can be difficult at times, depending on various factors, so it’s not always perfect, but 1000 times better than it use to be 10-15 years ago - oh man the apps back then sucked at that! 
).
As such, if you have it disabled and you are “echoing” other people’s audio back to them, typically you don’t realise there is an issue as you won’t hear the echo (i.e. their audio goes from your speakers into your mic and sends it back to them along with any audio from you, so they hear themselves echoed back but you don’t). Therefore, conversely, if you hear an echo of your own voice on a Zoom call, then it’s typically not a problem with your setup but someone else’s. Look for who’s image lights up when you hear your voice come back and it will be that person who’s listening through speakers with echo cancellation disabled
With regards to the term “feedback” in the videoconference world, we tend to refer to “feedback” (i.e. that high pitched squealing noise as opposed to an echo a voice) when it happens as a result of two people connecting to the same Zoom meeting within earshot of each other, so audio goes into the mic of one device then out the speakers of the other then into the mic of the original and then out the other and over and over again… looping super fast until it quickly results in a very unpleasant high pitched squeal! 
This commonly occurs in conferencing rooms which have a built-in VC system, then someone wants to share from their laptop so they join the same meeting but don’t disable their audio and then immediately there is horrible feedback that occurs Thankfully this is getting less common these days due to people becoming more saavy to this and Zoom (for instance) being smart enough to detect that issue and auto-disabling audio on the offending device 
So the point here is that, Zoom’s EC won’t do anything to resolve any local feedback you are getting within your own audio setup, it is specifically there to prevent you from echoing others back to themselves.
So not sure if any of this is useful, or just makes it more confusing! But what I really wanted to point out is that echo cancellation in Zoom should always be enabled unless you’ll always be muted or your mic can’t hear your speakers
As to whether Zoom’s EC causes any negative impact when enabled whilst Original Sound is on, I can’t say for sure. I know Zoom’s EC does do more audio processing than just cancelling out far-end audio when enabled without OS on (as mentioned above it definitely adds a boost and some EQ) but even if it doesn’t do that with OS on then it will certainly impact your audio if other people make noise whilst you’re playing and that’s picked up by your mic (because their audio will attempt to be subtracted from yours, and the subtraction won’t be perfect). But outside of that, I’m not sure that it does cause problems when Original Sound is turned on, or at least I haven’t really noticed anything significant 
Just a note on when original sound sometimes turns itself off after your have turned it on in a meeting, it’s worth noting that if you toggle mic inputs in Zoom at any point, it will disable OS so that you’ll have to turn it back on again, perhaps this might explain some occasions where it has occurred. Although, I do feel that it has happened randomly at times as well… 
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Sorry guys but my quest to employ this additional tech for my upcoming debut has posed some hurdles 
and yes, I have to join the long line of peeps requiring assistance to get it working 
signals are as follows:
UMC202 Mic on 1 amp/guitar on 2 - into Reaper with as 2 tracks with a 3rd track adding some effects (slapback) to the vocal. - All then into OBS using ReaRoute ASIO - and then Zoom. (this all works fine up to and including OBS as I use it for my AVOYPs)
Problem is that in Zoom under the audio settings I only have the option to select the Behringer and therefore seem to be getting a dry vocal and not the applied effects that I can hear on OBS.
I am guessing that this is because it is taking the audio directly from the UMC202 ? So how can I get my full wet signal to Zoom? Will I need to alter to the method of using virtual cables?
Thanks in advance guys.
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Craig
Have you looked at the DAW/OBS/Zoom guides in the OM Tech Talk Section.
Here is one I updated last year.
However, I would add that both @DavidP and I have experienced significant sync issues with OBS and Zoom this year. The above set up will work but you may find the OBS to Zoom latency not to your liking ! Good luck on getting set up.
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Thanks Toby,
Yes, currently working my way through the various options of connecting. Thanks for the latency heads up
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A word of advice, Craig-
Don’t get too bogged down by the tech
For any performance, and esp. live, the most important thing is to prepare your song (+/- patter) enough that you’re comfortable with it, even if things go a bit pear-shaped 
We all want to sound our best, but I have seen folk tie themselves in unnecessary knots going down that extra tech mile It makes a small difference over zoom (unless you’re doing a Dale!)
This used to be my recording setup for years
Then I decided to invest in the tech path and now use this
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Yes, thanks Brian, I think because as I’ve gone along I’ve worked with what I have things have got a bit complicated.
It all works quite happily up to and including OBS (that I have to use because I use DroidCam with my phone plugged in as a camera and it works well with OBS as does the sound, it’s just that when it goes to Zoom I can only have the dry vocal.
In the end I’ll probably just settle for it as it is and work out a better solution down the track when I can be bothered
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My moto in life 
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Boyz and toyz … and then the ‘tech’ is blamed when it all goes bat-guano …
“Sound” advice above from Brian: and you have the right attitude in saying to work with what you have.
Zoom has improved over the last 4yrs, and although it’s primarily an App developed for “commerce”, not “music”; it’s just what we have.
Try to reach a level in your practice where you don’t need to rely on a script (tab/lyrics); then you can focus on putting in a performance. 
KISS, and It’ll be alright on the night … 
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Thanks, Jeff. Thinking your post could benefit “the many” … perhaps pinning in a more prominent place for all to read and digest.
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Hey Craig, I just found this buried deep here in this thread after seeing Richard’s mention to you in the OM DMs.
Yes, correct.
Sounds like you’re missing VB Audio virtual cable. Configure OBS to use it as the output, and configure Zoom to use it as an input.
There’s some wisdom in the keep it simple method, but if you’re comfortable setting up (and troubleshooting) the more complex setup I find it way more powerful. Takes a bit to figure it out in the first place, but if you’re pretty tech minded it’s not that hard to use it.
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Hi JK, thanks mate, all good.
I did listen very carefully to Richards advice but in the time I had still wanted to see if I could get it working and did, you are correct I was missing the Virtual Cable. I don’t mind diving into the tech I enjoy the challenges and am reasonably savvy.
I’m still not sure that I’m going to use it that way though, it does seem to all run ok but I’m also worried about something crashing on the night (it’s a lot to run on an older computer), so may end up with dropping OBS but leaving Reaper to Zoom working via the Virtual Cable and just using my laptop camera, albeit a rubbish quality. I’ll make the call nearer the night.
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Hi Craig,
It sounds like you’re sorted, but just in case- I’m fairly flexible timewise, so if you want to do a test run, I’m happy to set up a quick zoom call to see what it sounds like on the other side (or you can always do a zoom recording yourself to review). Gimme a shout if you do
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Hi Brian,
I certainly feel pretty confident that the tech is behaving itself. I did run a test with Jeff who was good enough to jump on zoom and have a listen and all seemed ok, he has offered to have another listen nearer the time if he is available, but I’m happy for you to jump on a zoom and check it out too mate, can’t test too much for the first time.
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Craig @CD02
I have great sympathy with you, I have only done one OM and was far more concerned about technology not working than actually playing,
Michael
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