I just release a new 75-pages book about using the Zoom Meeting with DAWs and audio collaboration in general. It is available as a free pdf download on my website

http://MusicTechExplained.com



I explain with detailed signal flow diagrams and step-by-step instructions on how you can use Logic Pro X in a Zoom meeting in a class or when collaborating with others.

It seems that virtually everybody at schools and businesses moved to online meetings using the Zoom application due to COVID-19. Although there are a ton of YouTube videos out there, they pretty much all cover only the basics. Not much information about the details, the concepts, and how to use it when you have a Pro Tools Session and want to collaborate in an online class or with your music project participants.

I did a lot testing the last three weeks to figure out how I can use it in my own music production classes at the university to incorporate Pro Tools and Logic with stereo sound, screen sharing, and remote mouse/keyboard controls.

I put all that detailed information together in this new book and made it now available as a free pdf download, my little contribution to the community during this challenging COVID-19 times. With lots of graphics and signal flow diagrams combined with step-by-step instructions, I hope it can help others who rely on Zoom Meetings as the new reality to continue with their work as much as possible

Enjoy, and stay healthy,

 

This might be interesting, thank you.

Unfortunately, zoom is now playing a major role in my life.

By the way, it's years ahead of Skype or Webex technically speaking and has the potential to be the new standard for video conferencing.

 

...although Zoom has been getting serious flack regards security recently.
Maybe just propaganda from the Skype brigade though?

 

I tried zoom yesterday, between two computers (a mac and a win pc) that are in the same room, connected to the same network.
I didn't even open any DAW, just played music in VLC, via Loopback Audio.
Unfortunately the result was disappointing. Mono sound with a lot of interruption. Not better than Skype, even worse.
I don't think its technology is more advanced than Skype.
Please enlighten me, why it didn't play stereo, in the first place.
I don't even want to run it in DAW, rather to share audio coming out of Finale.

Edit:
After reading your tutorial, it seems I have to download an extra plugin. The pdf shows it for mac, I hope there is for windows, too.
Later I will have another try. I just don't get it, why it's not stereo in default mode or at least having the option for it without needed to install an extra plugin. That's a very basic requirement.

Btw, thanks for sharing the pdf, well done!

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2020

i dont want to install a massive securityhole like this and dont wanna encourage others. shares data with facebook. admins can record everything without knowledge of partners. zoom shares also if you are watching the communication of your chat or do browsing while talking to you chief. zoom collects all data if installed on ios, zoom collects ip, location and everything he gets and has no end to end encryption.

https://theintercept.com/2020/03/31/zoom-meeting-encryption/
https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/1/2...erencing-software-coronavirus-demand-response
https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...-from-hackers-heres-what-you-do/#7060e2a77343

 

Thanks for your contribution. You should post it next door. It certainly can be of use to many of the members there, too.

 

Aww man. I downloaded that thing to try it, and then uninstalled it and all related files.
But it still shows as a device, and is sometimes randomly chosen by my system, and most importantly it stopped my external A/D converter working!
I keep meaning to talk to the devs.

 

Re. Zoom promising to fix security holes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52133349

 

From the start, zoom was built for video conferencing whereas Skype was only a VOIP application (they added video afterward).

Next, zoom works in FHD whereas Skype only allows you to have standard definition.

Finally, of course I have no idea how your computers are configured and what about their specs but I will give you only two examples:

1. My company uses zoom for our daily team meeting (around 6 people)
2. My son used it as a virtual classroom (around 20 kids)

In both cases, the experience was flawless. Just try to do the same with Skype, there's no way it can handle that much participants.

Finally, regarding the security:
Zoom allows you to define a password for your meeting, which Skype does not. It's still not perfect and there might be other security holes but it's in my opinion safer than Skype.

One last thing: zoom allows to record your session (Skype might also be able to do so) and it also allows you to have virtual backgrounds which is very handy when you don't want to show your current location (in a business setup for ex).

In my opinion zoom is even more advanced than Cisco Webex which, unlike Skype, is only used by businesses.

 

This is simply not true.

When you start a session recording, every participant will hear a message stating that this meeting is being recorded.

 

I don't remember how and when I got this into my mac. Probably at an awkward attempt to share music in skype. I don't remember what happened then, if I deleted it or not, I just saw it on the audio device list in Sys Pref. Yesterday I didn't have any problem with it though.
The system randomly choosing it, it happens to me with Soundflowers, so I don't think it's that particular plugin's "fault", rather mac OS problem.
And Loopback Audio didn't disturb my external audio device either.

 

I'm not fan of Skype in any degree but I'm quite sure this statement is wrong. A friend of mine has many times shared his FHD+ screen and as my monitor is only FHD, it showed his screen area fitted (shrank) into mine, with black lines on top and bottom. The image was surprisingly crisp.
Not these weeks though! Since the pandemic the resolution on Skype is ridiculously low and blurry, I can't even read texts from the shared screen.

I expressed my doubt and critic about the technology behind Zoom based on the audio quality issue. You are listing its features that are cool and so but I want acceptable audio quality, and stereo!

My second test remained the same awful result. I followed the instructions from the pdf, Zoom installed that extra plugin but nothing improved. Instead one thing went worse: if I had my external audio device on, not chosen in Sys Pref, just switched on, and got audio somehow from VLC into the external's output, even if in VLC and in Zoom I chose Zoom's extra plugin as audio output, so in this case, the other participant couldn't hear anything, only when I disconnected my external sound card.

Other day I'll try it within a DAW but I can't see why it would be any better, it doesn't make sense!

My connection, even if the two computers are in the same location, same household, router etc. is 30M down/5M up.
Mac OS El Capitan, and Windows 7
I can test it later with a windows 10 pc, also I can test it with 250M/70M connection but I don't think it's the problem, something else is missing.

Can anyone confirm for me that using Zoom has been able to achieve stereo sound, let's say at least some shitty mp3 quality?
So far it's worse than Skype in my experience.

 

Last edited: Apr 3, 2020

i could have sworn that i saw a daw on the sister site that offered online collaboration.

 

I have already done a research not long ago: the quality of the VOIP audio signal can be acceptable for voice messages, but nothing comparable to a "high quality" transmission

VOIP audio codec:

• Zoom: G722 or G711 audio
• Skype: SILK, G729, G711, G722
• Whatsapp: Opus voice codec 16Khz

there is no way to have a VOIP call with decent audio for now

 

This assumes I have friends to make music with.

 

My people and I have recently started using Zoom. I don't know how Zoom is able to handle the recent crush of new demand. Hopefully they will continue building the platform with more features and robustness.

 

Hey jazzzz. Thanks for replying.

But...it's not on my system any more! Yet it still shows as device, and my A/D converter still doesn't work!

 

Check if you see com.rogueamoeba.loopbackd.plist and/or com.rogueamoeba.Loopback.plist file in "User-specific" Library/Preferences folder. And delete that file.

 

Nope. As I said, I deleted all related files. But thanks jazzzz.
I've even tried reinstalling the driver for the A/D converter.

 

https://www.cnet.com/news/using-zoo...-here-are-the-privacy-risks-to-watch-out-for/

under cloud snitching. this happens if you are a subscriber

"a host can record the meeting along with its text transcription and a text file of any active chats in that meeting, and save it to the cloud where it can later be accessed by other authorized users at your company, including people who may have never attended the meeting in question."

and there is more

https://objective-see.com/blog/blog_0x56.html

i dont say its not a good video-conferencing software. maybe zoom is the best proggy at the moment. but its security is low as fuck