Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

Using the Church Webcasting System, YouTube, etc. Including cameras and mixers.
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bkharmon1
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#101

Post by bkharmon1 »

I should have mentioned that this test was done with the laptop running on battery power to avoid any additional interference.
Wattsuk wrote: Thu Mar 02, 2023 9:42 am I may have missed something but have you tried the testing with and without the AC power adapter connected to your laptop?

That's usually the quick temporary fix for these issues. Ground loop issues when AC adapter connected and then eliminated when the laptop is purely on battery power.
Robles07
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#102

Post by Robles07 »

Wattsuk wrote: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:39 am Revisiting this topic as we needed to improve the sound from the organ into the broadcast.

Currently feeding audio out of chapel sound system to Mevo by 3.5mm TRS.
When hymns were being played, the 3.5mm was removed from the mevo so that the camera's internal mics would pick up the ambient sound in the chapel. Not great and if there's a loud singer close to the camera it drowns out the organ almost entirely.

After much messing around, we located a dynamic mic on a stand approx 8-10 inches from the organ's loudspeaker. There is an XLR mic input just a few feet from here, so easy to run the cable. Adjusted the volume and the sound quality through the broadcast is brilliant. I was sceptical but the performance of this solution far exceeds my expectation.

Food for thought if anyone else is still having organ challenges.
I have been tasked with getting our organ music to be broadcast on zoom. I currently use a wireless mic with transmitter at the podium and it work fabulous for our speakers. But with Easter Sunday coming up, we have lots of music happening and my bishop wants to hear the organ and congregation during hymns. HELP!! We are in an older building.
rknelson
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#103

Post by rknelson »

Newer organs (like the Allen LD-34b Organ) have an XLR output that can feed the sound system. If your building is like many of ours, you won't have that option. A microphone plugged in on the stand can be used to pickup the organ sound, and can also give some pickup from congregational singing. Standard issue corded mics in our buildings are selected to avoid feedback and are rather directional.

This document ( https://p.shure.com/houses-of-worship-a ... tems-guide ) has a lot of good background information. I'm not advocating that brand, or that you go all out and change the audio system - even our older sound systems are well designed and tuned. I would first try a standard corded mic and experiment with placement to pickup the organ and congregational singing (keep it away from any one singer). You should turn this mic on only during hymns to avoid feedback and echo problems.

If standard mics don't work, consider purchasing a choir microphone. You should be able to find one for not much over $200 new. And on something like eBay you can probably get one used for less than half of that. It may require "phantom power" from the mixer (all of our our podium and sacrament table mics use phantom power). I would not go for wireless as you will pay much more for one good enough for music.

The best advice is test, test, test and try different approaches to find what works best.

Also, in Zoom be sure to select "Use Original Sound" - this is critical. "Original sound for musicians setting allows for the preservation of audio received from your microphone without using Zoom's echo cancellation and audio filters." I turn it back on for speakers.
russellhltn
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#104

Post by russellhltn »

Odds are the existing podium mic will work as long as there's no noise gate to cut the signal. However, you may have to turn up the volume when no one is speaking.

You can improve the sound by adding mics and a mixer.
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RichPhillips
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#105

Post by RichPhillips »

I might add that when I turned off zoom noise cancelling so the organ could be heard, the noise going out of the audio system was so loud the organ could still not be heard well. Too much hum and harmonics. I added a noise isolation device to the audio coming out of the rack for the zoom and run that through a small amp (for additional control) before going to the computer. That made the sound coming out of zoom much better. I set the noise cancellation in zoom to "low" for organ and choir, and turn the zoom noise cancellation back to "auto" when we have speakers. I know this is a local grounding problem, but thought I would suggest this in case you have a similar problem.
derrickfulkerson
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#106

Post by derrickfulkerson »

We need a simple, turnkey solution for handling organ music. I see some people have found work arounds using various mics or other pass through methods but we need something simple that just works regardless of who is running zoom.
lajackson
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#107

Post by lajackson »

derrickfulkerson wrote: Sat Apr 29, 2023 5:21 pm We need a simple, turnkey solution for handling organ music.
I see three options.

1. Let the pulpit microphone pick up the organ.
2. Find an output on the organ, if there is one, and feed it directly into the sound system or the device originating the webcast.
3. Place a microphone on the stand in the choir seats where it will pick up the organ sound from the organ speakers.

Which one works best will depend on your meetinghouse sound system or whether the organ has an output option. I use option 1 in the meetinghouses where it works acceptably.
russellhltn
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#108

Post by russellhltn »

#1 works, but probably needs a volume boost. But that's the simplest to run. Everything else requires a mixer and probably someone to run it.
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rknelson
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#109

Post by rknelson »

It is not ideal to feed the organ into the chapel speakers. It can be done as a workaround to get organ sound into the zoom feed. Separate organ speakers are designed for the volume and frequency range for organ music. Newer church sound systems feed an organ direct output (via an internal XLR connector output) to overflow (aka cultural hall) in a typical stake center, but do not mix the organ into the amplifier that drives the speakers in the chapel itself. Ideally, the organ would be mixed into the zoom feed without a mic that feeds into the amplifier for the chapel speakers. The digital mixers installed in sound systems for the past couple of decades have the hardware capacity to provide a special "zoom" output feed, but they are not programmed to do that. Stake centers which were designed for the discontinued church webcast system with the Teradek Vidiu box had an audio feed intended for webcasting, but even then it seems the programming did not mix organ into the webcasting feed.

I do want to emphasize selecting "Use Original Sound" in Zoom - this is critical. "Original sound for musicians setting allows for the preservation of audio received from your microphone without using Zoom's echo cancellation and audio filters." Without this setting, music is very choppy and cuts in and out even when you have a good mix feeding it.
derrickfulkerson
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Re: Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

#110

Post by derrickfulkerson »

For Stake Conference I use a basic 4 channel mixer to USB and can feed the main audio and organ audio into the mixer however it still does not work great. Zoom still can’t quite handle it even on Original Sound for Musician settings. It is better than letting the pulpit mic pick it up though.

But this set up really isn’t an option for Sacrament Meetings.

I’ve thought about going back to the Teradek and streaming to YouTube but I like the simplicity of Zoom. It just doesn’t so Audio we’ll, IMO.
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