Background music for Yoga classes over Zoom
How times have changed. Lots of trainers are having to get used to using video conferencing programs to deliver traditional group sessions like Yoga or exercise programs.
One of the most popular web programs is Zoom, due to relative ease of use and free client software.
So far so good, but one of the main things about these previous classes was the background music, carefully chosen as a relaxant, or as a motivator.
Lots of our SoundBucket customers use our high-quality portable speakers for strong emotional background vibes. But if you’ve ever tried to stream music over Zoom, you’ll know it sounds like crap!
This is because Zoom like many other programs has optimised audio for human voice, and tried to eliminate feedback and echoes using clever digital devices inside the computer, called Codecs.
However, since the latest Zoom version, you can now change the default codec to let you broadcast your voice, and background music! This is how you do it on a PC (Mac is similar):
- As the host, make sure you’ve got the latest version of Zoom installed (4.6.12 as of May 2020)
- Open a session, and move the mouse to the Mic symbol, and select the settings arrow
- Select Audio settings, and the audio setting screen will open
- Select Advanced
- Finally select the snappily named “Show in-meeting option to Enable Original Sound from microphone” check box to on
- Close the screens and you’ll see the new Screen Menu option at the top “Turn on Original Sound”
- Click this to turn it on, and Tell Zoom how the audio is coming into the system, from your mic, or even a line/USB source if it’s setup. That’s it, done!
- Click the menu item again if you want to turn it off
You’ll now be able to play music in the background as you speak, or even play it into your computer to broadcast to your students.
As the host, remember to remotely mute all the student’s microphones during the session, so they can hear you and the music, uninterrupted. The better your microphone is, the better they’ll hear it.
They can connect a decent Bluetooth speaker to their PC/Tablet ( I wonder what I’d recommend?) to get better audio at their end.
Online Yoga will start to feel like the real thing. Especially if you’ve got a SoundBucket! 😊