flaxholmelis Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 (edited) I am currently having my bass lessons over FaceTime. The problem we are having is that the audio to me is muted if I use the mic, ie make the slightest noise, while my tutor is speaking and vice versa. Does anyone know if this is a software or a hardware issue? I realise it's probably to reduce the chance of feedback etc, however I haven't noticed it while group chatting with my kids over Messenger. We are going to try Messenger for our next lesson, but we both have Macs and it involves logging into Google as Safari does not support video on Messenger - not a big problem, if it works, but we were hoping to be able to play pieces together as normal. My tutor has tried Skype (unstable) and Zoom (most stable platform but still cuts out) with other pupils. Just wondering what other people's experiences have been, as I don't particularly want to download and try each of the 100s of platforms available out there, especially if it's a hardware thing. Cheers Edited April 2, 2020 by flaxholmelis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ambient Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 NinJam in Reaper maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flaxholmelis Posted April 2, 2020 Author Share Posted April 2, 2020 Thanks, yes something like that would be best for jamming as it removes the problem of latency, which I suppose is going to be an issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Woodcock Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 Try using headphones, I've only experienced this problem when my mic has picked up the sound of my student from my speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flaxholmelis Posted April 3, 2020 Author Share Posted April 3, 2020 Thank you, I'll try that. I'm not a complete computer/audio biff, but I've only been doing all this for a few years and learning all the time. Wasn't sure if my question was completely stupid, but thought someone out there might be able to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Woodcock Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Not a stupid question at all! Skype, Facetime, Zoom etc. are optimised for conveying speech and will actively try to suppress what they consider to be background noise (this can include bass playing!) which can result in the sound cutting in and out; there are settings in Zoom which can alleviate this but I'm not sure about the others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBP Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Steve Woodcock said: Not a stupid question at all! Skype, Facetime, Zoom etc. are optimised for conveying speech and will actively try to suppress what they consider to be background noise (this can include bass playing!) which can result in the sound cutting in and out; there are settings in Zoom which can alleviate this but I'm not sure about the others. This exactly, I have been using Zoom for all my teaching for the last couple of weeks and it has been working a treat. Much better than Skype Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudewheresmybass Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 I’m another zoom user. I have had a couple of issues where my student is a little quiet, but on the whole zoom is very impressive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flaxholmelis Posted April 3, 2020 Author Share Posted April 3, 2020 Thanks for all the feedback. I actually had a family group chat on Zoom last night and was impressed. The picture was very clear. Seems like it's could be the best option. I'll let you all know how I got on. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Zoom. But disable the ambient and background noise filters. Otherwise it thinks the music is background noise. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudewheresmybass Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 Can’t seem to find those controls. where might I be able to ? @fretmeister Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 1 hour ago, dudewheresmybass said: Can’t seem to find those controls. where might I be able to ? @fretmeister PC or Mac is the same. When the meeting starts you'll see a little mic icon on the bottom left corner. Click the arrow next to it, then audio settings. That brings up a pop-up. ADVANCED will be on the bottom right on the pop-up Then you can see the audio processing options. Disable the top 2. Can leave the echo cancellation at auto. Only on PC and Mac - option not available on tablet / phone. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudewheresmybass Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 Cheers. im working using a tablet, so I'll just have to deal with it lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flaxholmelis Posted April 6, 2020 Author Share Posted April 6, 2020 (edited) So we're trying Zoom later today and I've disabled the background and ambient noise settings, so I'll let you know how it goes 😊 Edited April 6, 2020 by flaxholmelis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rOB Posted April 6, 2020 Share Posted April 6, 2020 I'm having guitar lessons over Skype at the moment. We are just working around the limitations of latency and not being able to play together. I'll be very interested to hear if anyone finds a good solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flaxholmelis Posted April 10, 2020 Author Share Posted April 10, 2020 The lesson over Zoom was very good - much better than FaceTime and apparently much better than Skype, although I've never used Skype for video myself. The picture was very clear and the sound was also good. I did disable the ambient/background noise filters and it seemed to work pretty much. Latency is, as we thought, still a problem - we tried to play something together, but there is about 1 sec delay - so sounds great to one person, but not the other! In the end I played the relevant track on my laptop and played over it and Simon could hear both together well enough. That will have to do for now. I did have a quick look at NinJam that someone suggested. Probably no good for a lesson situation, but could work for getting a group of people playing together. I wonder if anyone on here has tried it, seeing as it seems we're going to have get used to isolation for a while yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigguy2017 Posted April 10, 2020 Share Posted April 10, 2020 Have a look at https://audiomovers.com/ It's a super-low latency plugin for your DAW, which streams audio into remote browsers. My brother has been using it for teaching and it works as advertised. Can be used in parallel with Skype or Zoom. AAX, AU, VST, VST3 OS X (64 bit only) Pro Tools 12,2019,2020 Cubase 9.5-10.5, LogicPro X, Ableton Live 9.5/10 Windows Pro Tools 12,2019,2020 Cubase 9.5-10.5, Ableton Live 9.5/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.