By default, Zoom does a lot to your audio. It makes your audio stream take up less bandwidth to give your voice the best chance of not breaking up or cutting out. And it analyzes and processes the audio to eliminate echo and background noise. These things are really important in ordinary use.
As of Zoom version 4.1.8826.0925, there’s a way to bypass audio processing and send and record exactly what your mic is picking up, for better or worse. In the Zoom client, go to Zoom Settings –> Audio –> Advanced –> Show in-meeting option to “Enable Original Sound.” The three buttons on that screen that let you control exactly what happens when you click the Turn on Original Sound button in the upper left corner of your Zoom meeting: echo cancellation, High fidelity music mode, and stereo. There are some cautions.
I wouldn’t recommend disabling echo cancellation without using headphones to hear the other side of the Zoom call. Hi-fi music mode uses less compression–you’ll get a better recording, but the audio stream will be bigger and might not work on Wifi, for instance. Stereo only makes sense if you have a stereo mic and something you want to represent as stereo. For instance, usually the sound of one person talking or singing is best represented as a mono recording. Guitar and piano can be miked mono or stereo but bass and horns are usually miked mono.
If you ever Turn on Original Sound (bypassing Zoom’s audio processing), I urge you to Turn off Original Sound (turning Zoom’s audio processing back on) before you quit Zoom. Otherwise your audio could easily disrupt disrupt the next Zoom call you’re on.
Read more at Midnight Music’s Complete Guide to Zoom Audio Settings for Music Teachers.
-
What happens if I bypass Zoom’s audio signal processing?