Gear for Zoom Lessons

[ryant]

Hey Folks,

What setup do you all use for online lessons (receiving a lesson)? I've got one coming up, my first. I have a Zoom U-24 USB audio interface and was thinking of using two mics, one for talking and one for playing. I have a Shure SM57 for my horn, and I've got a Shure BETA 57A lying around, was thinking of using that for talking. Sennheiser HD 560S Open-back headphones, I use these cause they are the only ones I've found that fit my giant ears.

Thanks,

Ryan

[Burgerbob]

Honestly? Just an iPad.

[ryant]

Don't own an iPad. And the mic on my iPhone is all jacked up. But I have a nice pc and lots of audio gear laying around. Just trying to cobble together what I can with what I have around the basement. Maybe just a red solo cup with some string?

[tbdana]

I have an AKG 414 put through a Universal Audio Apollo X8 audio interface that I use for both speaking and playing, and it's great with zero apparent latency and good quality sound.

[ryant]

I have an AKG 414 put through a Universal Audio Apollo X8 audio interface that I use for both speaking and playing, and it's great with zero apparent latency and good quality sound.

Nice. I'll be that sounds good. By chance, is there a similar mic you might recommend at a lower price? They have a used one on reverb, looks like it is good condition. Not sure I'm ready to pull the trigger on that though.

https://reverb.com/item/90938786-akg-ak ... gold-black

Looks like this might be comparable, much cheaper too:

https://reverb.com/item/91364171-akg-c5600-live-414

[tbdana]

I have an AKG 414 put through a Universal Audio Apollo X8 audio interface that I use for both speaking and playing, and it's great with zero apparent latency and good quality sound.

Nice. I'll be that sounds good. By chance, is there a similar mic you might recommend at a lower price? They have a used one on reverb, looks like it is good condition. Not sure I'm ready to pull the trigger on that though.

https://reverb.com/item/90938786-akg-ak ... gold-black

Looks like this might be comparable, much cheaper too:

https://reverb.com/item/91364171-akg-c5600-live-414

Yeah, the AKG c214 is less than half the price, almost as good, and works really well with a trombone.

[ryant]

Nice. Maybe sometime down the road I’ll get one of those.

Thanks!

[MahlerMusic]

Just remember the person on the other side will must likely just have an Ipad. You might get luck and they will have cheap headphone or earbuds.
Keep it simple.

[slidesix]

I agree with some of the others. Don’t overthink this. Don’t overengineer this. I thought same of the same thoughts encore I had my Skype lesson with Doug E. You know what? It was fine with my laptop.

[ryant]

I use a Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 for meetings. Would that work ok you think?

Thanks,

Ryan

[MahlerMusic]

I use a Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 for meetings. Would that work ok you think?

Thanks,

Ryan

That is what I upgraded to for my Desktop Webcam. It will work just fine.

[ryant]

Sweet.

[ryant]

I use a Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 for meetings. Would that work ok you think?

Thanks,

Ryan

That is what I upgraded to for my Desktop Webcam. It will work just fine.

Well, I had my first lesson with this setup and it did not work. When I played the sound was pretty bad on the other end, and then cut out entirely. Could not play over Zoom live with this. I went into the Logitech app and turned down the gain, that worked great for recording on my PC but for whatever reason Zoom was not having it. Have any of you experienced something similar?

Thanks,

rt

[cmcslide]

By default, Zoom software wants to filter out all sounds that are not voices. There are some settings that you can change to allow it to reproduce musical sounds; look in the audio preferences for “use original sound.” Both you and your student will want to change that setting. I had to figure that out myself teaching during the pandemic…

[ryant]

By default, Zoom software wants to filter out all sounds that are not voices. There are some settings that you can change to allow it to reproduce musical sounds; look in the audio preferences for “use original sound.” Both you and your student will want to change that setting. I had to figure that out myself teaching during the pandemic…

Thanks, I’ll check it out.

[Wilktone]

I'm just now noticing this topic, so I'm a bit late.

High quality camera and microphone are nice, but might be wasted on Zoom. More importantly you'll want a stable, reliable, upload speed.

Someone more knowledgeable will have to correct me, but I imagine that if you're trying to upload high resolution video and audio to your teacher that Zoom might compress it automatically to whatever your upload speed happens to be. So what your teacher might be seeing and hearing isn't the quality that your camera and mic deliver.

By default, Zoom software wants to filter out all sounds that are not voices. There are some settings that you can change to allow it to reproduce musical sounds; look in the audio preferences for “use original sound.” Both you and your student will want to change that setting. I had to figure that out myself teaching during the pandemic…

This is the single most important thing you need to be able to do. If you don't get this setting correct your voice can be heard, but when you go to play the audio will clip out and your teacher can't hear anything you play.

Notice that there are two places on Zoom where you have to handle this. On your audio settings you check the box and then in your actual meeting window there is another box (mine is in the upper right hand corner) where you need to switch it on too. I don't know why Zoom set it up this way, but changing your audio just in the settings don't always put original sound for musicians on.

[ryant]

I'm just now noticing this topic, so I'm a bit late.

High quality camera and microphone are nice, but might be wasted on Zoom. More importantly you'll want a stable, reliable, upload speed.

Someone more knowledgeable will have to correct me, but I imagine that if you're trying to upload high resolution video and audio to your teacher that Zoom might compress it automatically to whatever your upload speed happens to be. So what your teacher might be seeing and hearing isn't the quality that your camera and mic deliver.

By default, Zoom software wants to filter out all sounds that are not voices. There are some settings that you can change to allow it to reproduce musical sounds; look in the audio preferences for “use original sound.” Both you and your student will want to change that setting. I had to figure that out myself teaching during the pandemic…

This is the single most important thing you need to be able to do. If you don't get this setting correct your voice can be heard, but when you go to play the audio will clip out and your teacher can't hear anything you play.

Notice that there are two places on Zoom where you have to handle this. On your audio settings you check the box and then in your actual meeting window there is another box (mine is in the upper right hand corner) where you need to switch it on too. I don't know why Zoom set it up this way, but changing your audio just in the settings don't always put original sound for musicians on.

Yes, thank you for this. I applied the changes and did a test in my house with my another device. This definitely helps. The first lesson was bad, kept doing exactly what you described. Next one is coming up in a couple weeks, I look forward to having better results this time.

My daughter listened to my playing with the camera mic and with the Shure mic and she said it was a pretty big difference. I'd love for the teacher to hear all the things in my sound, but I understand that Zoom can limit some of that. I recently spoke with someone else about remote lessons and they said they prefer to have some recordings sent ahead of time to get a better picture of the sound. That sounds like a great idea.

Now that we have the equipment issue pretty well sorted, it would be great if there were this simple of a solution for my mouthpiece mania!