Sharing DAW audio into Zoom meetings (Windows 10)

[kingy75]

Hi all,

How can I share audio from my Windows 10 DAW (digital audio workstation), iTunes and Google Chrome all into my Zoom meetings?

I need professional audio quality for my online teaching but I'm really not sure where to start with getting my audio into Zoom.

Cheers

[Kwackman]

This might point you in the right direction?

https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advi ... work-music

[ConcertinaChap]

Hi,

That article is primarily about getting the best live sound. If you don't do the "original sound" stuff in the article then Zoom tends to assume music is background noise and tries to eliminate it so I think you're going to need to do that anyway. However it doesn't really cover sound from your DAW etc (I should know, I wrote it ). Can you be a bit more specific about what you have in mind and I'll see what I can do to help.

CC

[kingy75]

Hi,

That article is primarily about getting the best live sound. If you don't do the "original sound" stuff in the article then Zoom tends to assume music is background noise and tries to eliminate it so I think you're going to need to do that anyway. However it doesn't really cover sound from your DAW etc (I should know, I wrote it ). Can you be a bit more specific about what you have in mind and I'll see what I can do to help.

CC

Thanks for your replies, guys. I need to run a mic for my voice plus a software instrument track from my DAW (Cakewalk) into Zoom.

Ideally I'd love to route iTunes and Chrome through Zoom as well but just the DAW would be enough at this stage.

[Drew Stephenson]

How are you mixing your voice levels and DAW/computer levels? Have you got an interface with its own mixer panel (Focusrite MixControl or TotalMix etc)?
I might get chance to have a quick play at lunchtime to see how I'd do it if I needed to, I'll let you know how I get on.

[kingy75]

How are you mixing your voice levels and DAW/computer levels? Have you got an interface with its own mixer panel (Focusrite MixControl or TotalMix etc)?
I might get chance to have a quick play at lunchtime to see how I'd do it if I needed to, I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm using a Roland Quad Capture for my audio interface. I can use it's mixer panel to mix my voice level. I'd adjust any software instruments from within the DAW. I guess I could mix my voice level inside the DAW too.

I've tried setting the mic input in Zoom to my audio interface but it just sounds terrible.

On my Mac I use Loopback to route audio between applications with a virtual device. I basically need an app like Loopback for PC that lets me route processed audio from my DAW to Zoom. See this tutorial here for how I have my Mac set up: https://brianli.com/how-to-host-an-onli ... M1bcTZF-Tk

[notuno]

How are you mixing your voice levels and DAW/computer levels? Have you got an interface with its own mixer panel (Focusrite MixControl or TotalMix etc)?
I might get chance to have a quick play at lunchtime to see how I'd do it if I needed to, I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm using a Roland Quad Capture for my audio interface. I can use it's mixer panel to mix my voice level. I'd adjust any software instruments from within the DAW. I guess I could mix my voice level inside the DAW too.

I've tried setting the mic input in Zoom to my audio interface but it just sounds terrible.

On my Mac I use Loopback to route audio between applications with a virtual device. I basically need an app like Loopback for PC that lets me route processed audio from my DAW to Zoom. See this tutorial here for how I have my Mac set up: https://brianli.com/how-to-host-an-onli ... M1bcTZF-Tk

Don't mean to hijack your thread but I'm facing the same issue on a Mac. Did you write that tutorial? I need to do a Zoom live concert with a violin and a backing track. The problem is that playing violin with headphones is not that great, I'd like to hear the backing track from speakers. I have a Zoom H4N pro, and I normally use Audacity. So far what I did was to play the backing track through the speakers, and pick up everything with the H4N microphones, which is obviously not ideal. Can I route the backing track AND the H4N to Zoom, while listening to the backing track through speakers? I also have a Scarlett i2 (old model) that I never used. I may continue this in a separate thread if it creates confusion.

[kingy75]

I didn't write that tutorial but I did use it to set up MainStage for Zoom meetings on my Mac. It works great for my voice and for playing piano but it's a fairly convoluted way of doing things.

That said, I don't see why you couldn't use that method to play your violin and a backing track through MainStage on your Mac. I'm guessing the same approach would work with Logic but I haven't tried it.

[John Willett]

While we are talking about Zoom......

I am looking for a cheapo interface to get a headset into the laptop for zoom.

The mic. needs 48V phantom powering and (obvoiously) is mono only and I need headphones out.

Any ideas?

The cheaper the better, I'm not looking to use it for anything other than Zoom meetings.

[ConcertinaChap]

I've sorted this sound issue. I'm just writing it up and I'll be back in a few minutes.

CC

[kingy75]

I've sorted this sound issue. I'm just writing it up and I'll be back in a few minutes.

CC

Thanks CC. I've managed to get something happening using the Voicemeeter software (https://www.vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/in ... u7EALw_wcB) but I'm interested to hear your results too.

[ConcertinaChap]

OK, so the requirement is to share sound from apps over Zoom while simultaneously using the mic and webcam in the normal manner. This is quite achievable but it isn’t part of Zoom’s settings – you have to set it up each time you want to use it. So here we go:

1) Start your meeting. You might want to start it early before anyone else joins so they aren’t hanging around while you’re doing this. At the bottom of the screen (at least on a Mac, might be different on other platforms) you’ll see a green button labelled “Share screen”. Click on it. You’ll see the following screen:



2) Most of this screen is irrelevant, you’re only interested in the “Advanced” tab (between Basic and Files) at the top of the screen. Click on that. You’ll see this screen:



3) Click on “Music or Computer Sound Only” to make it blue. Click on “Share”. If this is NOT the first ever time you’ve done this then you’re done. You’ll go back to the main screen which will look like this at the top:



You can see the big green strip pointing out you’re sharing sound and a button to stop sharing.

4) If this IS the first time you’ve tried this then Zoom has to install an audio driver and you’ll get this screen:



Just follow the instructions remembering to restart Logic or whatever program is generating the sound afterwards. As a result of this you’ll find an additional audio device showing up in Audio MIDI Setup called ZoomAudioDevice. Just ignore it.

Of course you have to balance up the sound of your voice in the mic against the sound of Logic or whatever, which is tricky when you can’t hear your voice. There’s two ways of doing this. The best is to have an assistant on a separate computer participating in the meeting who can tell you what he/she is hearing. The second if you’re just trying it out in a solo meeting is to use the Zoom record function to record a snippet of sound that you can review afterwards. My experience is that you’ll probably need to keep the level of the mic up and the application down.

Good luck!

CC

[Drew Stephenson]

CC doesn't that mute the microphone?
I can't test this at the moment but shouldn't it just be a case of clicking on the 'share computer sound' at the bottom left?

[ConcertinaChap]

No it doesn't. The mic remains live. I've tested this. Here's the evidence.

CC

[Drew Stephenson]

Thanks CC

[LifeRacer]

So... Everything here so far is 100% useless to someone using an audio interface on PC. I was hoping that someone here actually had an answer for Windows 10, because it's much more restrictive than Mac, and no one has seemed to crack it yet.

On PC, Zoom does not create its own devices. Instead, it uses the MME ins and outs. For me (and most people using an audio interface on PC), I HAVE to set my DAW output to my interface on ASIO, otherwise the latency is crippling and my CPU consumption goes through the roof. It's just a glitchy, garbled mess.

When it comes to things like Voicemeeter and Voicemeeter Banana, there is no option to connect an existing output as an input, meaning I have to connect to the Voicemeeter input, which does not have the same capabilities as my interface's ASIO output.

My question is this: Is there any way on PC to connect an existing output to an existing input, so I can route it through Voicemeeter to the correct MME output for Zoom to see it?

[ConcertinaChap]

> Everything here so far is 100% useless to someone using an audio interface on PC.

My sympathy if that is correct. It strikes me as odd that Zoom would have come up with a solution that only worked on Macs, though. My main O/S is MacOS but I do, as it happens, have a Surface Pro 4 so I'll have a play tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

CC

[notuno]

Another Mac post, sorry: I tried the two methods suggested by kingy75 (using the trial version of Looback) and ConcertinaChap (with Zoom only, thanks for posting it!).

I did a Zoom meeting and joined with my phone to test the result: with both methods indeed I could hear both the computer sound (I tried both Audacity and Youtube) AND an external mic (in my case the Zoom H4N pro connected via USB).

However with both methods I found two problems that make them unsuitable (unless there is a way to fix them) for streaming with a live instrument + backing track:

1. the mic signal lags behind the computer audio, but up to 1 s. This is especially bad with the Zoom-only method, in fact Zoom even speeds up the computer audio, seemingly after a mic signal, as if to catch up. I tried also with the computer internal mic instead of the H4N, and it's even more lagging.

2. I couldn't figure out a way to monitor just the computer audio and not the mic signal.

Anyone knows how to fix this?

[Rich Hanson]

This is equipment specific for me but it works:

I have a Presonus AR16 USB mixer, which has a USB channel for each input. I have found that if the ASIO driver is set to the same sample rate as the standard WIndows sound system then both will work simultaneously.

I feed the DAW to output 3/4, which comes out on one of the stereo input channels, and send that to a pre-fade send along with whatever mic I'm using. The output of that send I feed back to a spare channel which is the one I select in Zoom for the input.

This is mono-only, but I don't think Zoom works in stereo anyway (I might be wrong there).

[ConcertinaChap]

> Everything here so far is 100% useless to someone using an audio interface on PC.

My sympathy if that is correct. It strikes me as odd that Zoom would have come up with a solution that only worked on Macs, though. My main O/S is MacOS but I do, as it happens, have a Surface Pro 4 so I'll have a play tomorrow and see what I can come up with.

Well I've done that now on the Surface running under Windows 10 and my experience was exactly the same as when I did it on the Mac, except I didn't need to install the Zoom audio device. However I'm no expert on ASIO so maybe someone else can help here.

@notuno, TBH I'm not surprised. Latency is always a problem in these scenarios. It sounds like Rich may have a useful approach though.

CC

[Sam Spoons]

I'd have thought the simplest way to keep computer audio and live audio in sync would be to mix them into a single stream outside the device hosting the meeting. Taken to the extreme, play the backing track off whatever device you have available (iPod, spare phone WHY) with a wired connection into the mixer or audio interface. That way any latency will be the same for the track and the vocal.

[notuno]

This is equipment specific for me but it works:

I have a Presonus AR16 USB mixer, which has a USB channel for each input. I have found that if the ASIO driver is set to the same sample rate as the standard WIndows sound system then both will work simultaneously.

I feed the DAW to output 3/4, which comes out on one of the stereo input channels, and send that to a pre-fade send along with whatever mic I'm using. The output of that send I feed back to a spare channel which is the one I select in Zoom for the input.

This is mono-only, but I don't think Zoom works in stereo anyway (I might be wrong there).

Thanks. Zoom (the application) can be used in stereo mode on computers, but not on phones. I'm in fact streaming the stereo signal of the intenal mics of the Zoom H4N pro, that I use as an audio interface for the Mac. My DAW is Audacity on the same Mac. If I understand you correctly (I'm an audio noob), are you suggesting to play the backing track on the Mac and send the Mac headphone output to an audio interface? But this is a stereo signal... and I think with the H4N I would need some attenuator (is that what a pre-fade is?). The problem with this is that I don't think the H4N pro allows to output via USB the signals from its internal mics and from the external XLR inputs together, but I may be wrong. Maybe I could send the headphone out of the H4N and the headphone out of the Mac both to the Scarlett i2?

Edit: I've always been using a sample rate of 44.1 kHz on the H4N, which is the same as that of the Mac, but the lag is still there.

[notuno]

I'd have thought the simplest way to keep computer audio and live audio in sync would be to mix them into a single stream outside the device hosting the meeting. Taken to the extreme, play the backing track off whatever device you have available (iPod, spare phone WHY) with a wired connection into the mixer or audio interface. That way any latency will be the same for the track and the vocal.

Can I do that with the gear I have? (Zoom H4N pro, that I need to use for the mics, Scarlett i2, and various devices to reproduce audio, including a home system with line outputs). What else would I need?

[Sam Spoons]

I'm not familiar with the H4N but it appears to have 4 inputs, if you could us it as an audio interface and play the backing tracks into it from another device (spare phone or WHY) you would at least have the track and the vocal in sync with each other but I don't know if the H4N offers 'direct monitoring' which you would need to listen to your track while singing. You can't get rid of the 'lag' or 'latency from a computer based system as it is inherent in any digital audio system and unavoidable, on a well set up system it is possible to get it down to a few milliseconds which may be acceptable. FWIW I can't sing wearing IEMs if there is more than 6ms latency, less than that is ok and only just noticeable.

As I said I don't know the H4N so I cannot say with any certainty whether this would work.

WRT using both the H4N and 2i2 should be unnecessary and might be contributing to the problem.

[notuno]

I'm not familiar with the H4N but it appears to have 4 inputs, if you could us it as an audio interface and play the backing tracks into it from another device (spare phone or WHY) you would at least have the track and the vocal in sync with each other but I don't know if the H4N offers 'direct monitoring' which you would need to listen to your track while singing. You can't get rid of the 'lag' or 'latency from a computer based system as it is inherent in any digital audio system and unavoidable, on a well set up system it is possible to get it down to a few milliseconds which may be acceptable. FWIW I can't sing wearing IEMs if there is more than 6ms latency, less than that is ok and only just noticeable.

As I said I don't know the H4N so I cannot say with any certainty whether this would work.

WRT using both the H4N and 2i2 should be unnecessary and might be contributing to the problem.

I'll give it a try with the H4N. It has two inputs, and two internal mics in stereo. There is a four channel recording mode that allows to record the internal mics and external inputs simultaneously in two WAV files on the SD card, but I'm not sure one can send via USB the combined signal from the internal mics and the external inputs.