Zoom ain't so great for recording ukulele videos

Gonna be swamped with online teaching in the coming months. Thought I'd try to use Zoom and its recording function to try to make a quick video, but the sound quality is pretty bad. But I thought I'd post this video of Sam Cooke's "What a Wonderful World" as a memento of this time in our history:

The video's good enough for us to see that your playing and singing is as good as ever my friend, so thanks for sharing, but I must admit ZOOM has certainly messed with your sound. I'm not technical so don't understand why, but it's certainly put ME off from trying anything that way - I'm bad enough already as it is without ZOOM adding to my woes!!! lol

Thanks, Dave! It might work better with a plug in mic, instead of the computer mic. But I don't think I'll have much time to make any ukulele videos for a while, anyway. I thought Zoom might be a good way to record a song quickly, but the sound was disappointing!

There are setting in Zoom that will improve the sound. In the audio preferences, turn off 'Automatically adjust microphone volume,' next, in the lower right, click the Advanced button. Check the box for 'Show in-meeting option to "Enable Original Sound" from microphone.' Then in the Auto Processing section, change the two suppress settings to Disable, leave Echo on auto. Close the preferences.

Back in the Zoom window in the upper left will now be the words Turn on Original Sound, click once on it so that it shows Turn off Original Sound. All these settings stops Zoom from controlling your audio. (The settings are preset for conversation, not music.)

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 39)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

Thanks for the help with Zoom audio settings, kohanmike.

But why use Zoom to record video? Zoom is for live streaming; it is necessarily limited by the speed of your internet connection. You'll get better audio/video quality if you record directly onto your own computer. Which is at least as quick and easy as using Zoom. See this page for instructions: https://www.wikihow.tech/Record-from-a-Webcam

You'd probably get still better results by pointing a smartphone in the right direction, turning on its camera app, selecting "video" and pressing the "record" button. Most phones (even cheapos like mine) have better mics and cameras than a webcam.

All that said, I enjoyed your video. It ain't the technology that matters; it's the music. Thanks!

Thanks, Michael and acmespaceship! Appreciate the tips for getting better sound on Zoom and the suggestion not to even use a webcam in the first place. I just wanted to see how it would be on Zoom. I've pretty much always recorded with a video camera, selected the best take, then worked on the video in post-production, but if I'm going to record anything in the coming months, I'll have to do away with post-production and record directly into my computer. We'll see! Things will get super busy starting today!

kohanmike said:

There are setting in Zoom that will improve the sound. In the audio preferences, turn off 'Automatically adjust microphone volume,' next, in the lower right, click the Advanced button. Check the box for 'Show in-meeting option to "Enable Original Sound" from microphone.' Then in the Auto Processing section, change the two suppress settings to Disable, leave Echo on auto. Close the preferences.

Back in the Zoom window in the upper left will now be the words Turn on Original Sound, click once on it so that it shows Turn off Original Sound. All these settings stops Zoom from controlling your audio. (The settings are preset for conversation, not music.)

Click to expand...

This is a much needed thread. Thanks Michael, for these Zoom settings, I forwarded to my ukulele group.

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acmespaceship said:

Thanks for the help with Zoom audio settings, kohanmike. But why use Zoom to record video? Zoom is for live streaming; it is necessarily limited by the speed of your internet connection. You'll get better audio/video quality if you record directly onto your own computer. Which is at least as quick and easy as using Zoom. See this page for instructions: https://www.wikihow.tech/Record-from-a-Webcam
You'd probably get still better results by pointing a smartphone in the right direction, turning on its camera app, selecting "video" and pressing the "record" button. Most phones (even cheapos like mine) have better mics and cameras than a webcam. All that said, I enjoyed your video. It ain't the technology that matters; it's the music. Thanks!

Click to expand...

In actuality, Zoom does record directly to your computer, when done you can choose to save it to the cloud or your computer, but a dedicated mic and recording app is better. I started using a lapel mic connected to a mixer into my MacMini via USB and recording to GarageBand. Works very well.

Martinlover said:

This is a much needed thread. Thanks Michael, for these Zoom settings, I forwarded to my ukulele group.

Click to expand...

Glad to help. I'm the tech guy of our uke group and with meeting on Zoom now twice a week, I tend to be tenacious about learning the app. I also suggest that despite Zoom support saying it's fine to use virtual background, avoid it and quit any application that connects to the internet, especially if your connection is WiFi, I alway use my computer with a hard wire ethernet connection.

When we have a meeting, I tell anyone on a smartphone or tablet to never have it upright, always turn it sideways, but sometimes a setting on the device needs to be changed to allow that, much larger image that way. That goes for shooting videos, never upright, always sideways.

Many helpful tips, Michael! Thanks again!