If you’re using Zoom for playing music, you’ll sound best to those you’re playing for if you use Original Sound. By default, Zoom is optimized for speaking, so it filters out things like clicks and hisses. But if you’re playing music you’ll want to preserve the original sound.
You can do this by changing this default setting – the trick is to make sure to change it at two different levels – on your device, and for each meeting.
This has gotten easier – before Zoom 4.6, web portal settings had to be changed as well, and these were different for account managers, group managers and single users (Zoom’s instructions for enabling original sound are long because they still include the different web portal instructions along with a note about the change).
1. Enable the original sound setting on your device
On a desktop or laptop computer:
If you’re signed in to the Zoom desktop application, sign out and sign in again, then
- Click Settings
- Click the Audio tab
- Click Advanced
- Choose “Show In-Meeting Option to Enable Original Sound from Microphone” by clicking the slider bar to make it blue
On an iPad or iPhone:
If you’re signed in to the Zoom app, sign out and sign in again, then
- Tap Settings
- Choose Meetings
- Choose “Use Original Sound” by tapping the slider bar to make it green
Once you’ve enabled the original sound settings in your web portal and on your device you’re all set up to choose to original sound once you’re in a meeting.
2. Choose original sound once you are in a meeting
On a desktop or laptop computer:
- Click “Turn Original Sound On” on the top left so it turns blue
This control can be confusing – it says “Turn Original Sound On” when it’s off, and “Turn Original Sound Off” when it is on. Fortunately, the color around the text changes depending on how it is set – the control should be blue when you’re playing music, like this:
On an iPad or iPhone:
After you’ve joined a meeting using computer audio
- Tap the More icon (…) in the bottom right corner
- Tap Use Original Sound
This is a toggle – you’ll see “Disable Original Sound” in the menu when Original Sound is enabled.
If you aren’t monitoring your sound you won’t be able to tell the difference, but the people on the other end will be the better for it.
