Less than a year ago, the term “Zoom meeting” would probably have made you shrug your shoulders or yawn. But in the pandemic world, online meetings have become an everyday activity — not only in lieu of corporate meetings, but also as a means of delivery for religious services and live performances from musical artists. Audio quality using Zoom can be sketchy, so here are some ways you can help improve the quality of your audio stream.
Phone Home
Using a smart phone to stream audio and video can be tempting because it’s so convenient, but there are some problems inherent in doing so. The first issue is the quality (or lack thereof) of the internal microphone, which won’t deliver the sound of a professional mic. Also, the mic in your phone may be non-directional, and that could result in a lot of ambient noise pickup. If you have no choice but to stream from a phone, use an external microphone such as the IK Multimedia iRig Mic Lav, RØDE VideoMic Me-L, or (if you need to capture audio in stereo) the Shure MV88. Mount the phone on a tripod instead of propping it up on a surface such as a desk or table. Besides the obvious stability provided by a tripod, propping the phone on a table could block the built-in microphone, resulting in poor audio quality. An external mic will be an improvement over the internal mic, but more importantly, the Zoom app for your phone or tablet lacks some very important audio options. Read on…
Take It Up a Notch
The quality of any audio production begins at the source, so treat an audio stream the way you would any audio production requiring your expertise. If you’re in charge of streaming a religious service, mic it up the same way you would if you were providing audio for the congregation in-person. Your mixing console will determine the next link in the chain. If you are using a digital mixer, chances are good that it will show up in your computer as an audio input and output device. If you’re using an analog mixer, then you’ll need a dedicated audio interface. Something simple, like the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (two inputs/two outputs) can do the job nicely.
Zoom software has a few audio settings that profoundly affect the quality of the audio stream. These settings can be accessed by navigating to Zoom > Preferences > Audio.
On the first page of Zoom audio preferences (see Fig. 1), uncheck “Automatically adjust microphone volume,” and make sure that “Join audio by computer when joining a meeting” and “Enable stereo” are both checked. This is also the page where you can meter the input level from the console. Check the level on the Zoom input level meter by sending tone from the main L/R outs of the mixer into the interface.
Clicking “Advanced” at the lower right corner of this window will bring you to page two of the audio settings (see Fig. 2).
Be sure that Show in-meeting option to “Enable Original Sound” from microphone is checked, and disable both Suppress Persistent Background Noise and Suppress Intermittent Background Noise. The latter two options are variations of noise gates designed to filter noise from things like air conditioners or your neighbor’s lawnmower.
The last parts of the puzzle are the audio options that appear in the actual Zoom session (see Fig. 3).
These audio options are accessed by clicking on the arrow next to the microphone at the lower left of the screen. This is where you set the audio I/O to your preferred device. In this example, the device setting under Select a Microphone is Scarlett 2i2 USB, as is the device setting under Select a Speaker. If you’re not paying attention to this, then your stream will pull audio from the computer’s built-in microphone. Yikes. When you are flying solo, use headphones for monitoring to reduce echoing and prevent feedback from the computer speakers.
The last, mysterious audio setting in Zoom is a button at the top left of the screen shown in Fig. 3, labeled Turn off Original Sound. This is how you toggle Zoom’s default audio processing (compression) on or off. If you want the Zoom processing off (you do), then the button should read Turn off Original Sound. Hey, don’t blame me for the labeling — I’m not the one who developed the UI. None of these audio settings are included on the versions of Zoom that run on smartphones (or iPads), and that’s why you really need to use a computer to stream decent audio via Zoom.
Now that you have the nuts and bolts sorted out, we can address some other issues. If you’re using a laptop for the stream, run it from the AC power supply and not the internal battery. Aside from the obvious danger of the battery going out for lunch in the middle of your event, there are two other considerations: (1) a bus-powered audio interface such as the Scarlett 2i2, may not receive full power via the USB connection when the computer is running from a battery. This can result in increased noise and distortion, reduced headroom, and will also reduce the battery run time significantly. (2) Some laptops reduce performance in order to increase run time when powered from a battery and only offer maximum performance when connected to an AC power source.
This next point may sound like a no-brainer, but I’m amazed at how many people miss this:
Do not connect your computer to the ‘net using Wi-Fi. Use a hard-wired connection. No matter how you slice it, Wi-Fi is an inferior way to stream audio and video, so why take the chance of experiencing dropouts or interference in the middle of a live-stream event? And, before your event goes “live,” check the audio quality from another device (phone, laptop, iPad) in a “practice” Zoom meeting.
One last thing to keep in mind is that Zoom’s default sample rate is 48 kHz, so you may run into issues such as clock noise or pitch change if you try to use an audio device set to 44.1 kHz. In cases where the Zoom session is a corporate meeting with multiple participants (as opposed to a one-way stream) it is possible to record each participant’s voice into a separate audio file. You’ll find this option under Zoom Preferences > Recording > Record a separate audio file for each participant. Happy Zooming.
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is the tour manager and FOH engineer for Blue Öyster Cult.
