Zoom Audio for Lessons
After sending a lot of written instructional emails, and walking through during the lesson, I think it’s time I share a simple guide (with pictures!) for getting your Zoom audio settings optimized for virtual music lessons.
This is a bit more of an in-depth guide than my previous post about the settings. The pictures and arrows will hopefully make it easier to get set-up.
Zoom for Computers
The first step is downloading the Zoom application from their website. https://zoom.us/
In the top right corner, click on “Resources.”
In the drop-down menu, click “Download Zoom Client.” (It’s free)
Simply click the download button.
Computer Settings
When you open the application, and sign in, you will see this screen. (Or something similar, the screen itself isn’t important). In the top right corner of the screen where I have a little picture of me, you will start off with a blank photo, click on the picture, then click on “Settings.”
Next, click on “Audio,” under the settings menu.
Then un-check the box “Automatically adjust microphone volume, and slide the circle all the way to the right.
Under “Music and Professional Audio,” check “Show in-meeting option to enable Original Sound,” and “High fidelity music mode,” and if you are not using headphones check “echo cancellation.”
Finally, during the meeting, in the top left corner of the screen click the button “Original Sound: Off,” so that it says “Original Sound: On.” If you are using a microphone you can select it to always use original sound. You should only have to do this once and it will stay the same every time you use it!
If you are using Zoom for other meetings, and don’t want the raw audio to pick up everything on your end, just click the “Original Sound,” button in the top left again to turn off those settings. Easy!
Zoom for Phones and Tablets
The audio settings for phones and tablets are a little less sophisticated right now (as of June 2021), but there is still an important step to making the audio clearer. Similar to computers, you first need to download the application. Search “Zoom” in your device’s app store.
Zoom Cloud Meetings is the name of the app, and this is what it will look like in the store itself.
Open the app, you should see something like this. In the bottom right of the screen, tap “Settings.”
You will have to scroll down and look for it, but find the “Use Original Sound” setting and tap it so it is enabled.
Then during the meeting, in the bottom right corner of the screen tap “More.”
Finally tap “Enable Original Sound.” And you’re done, easy!
Keep in mind, you probably won’t hear a difference. These settings will make it much easier for me to hear you during your lesson, which is very important! It is difficult to instruct you if I cannot hear you clearly.
