Zoom "Original Sound For Musicians" on by default

[danpass]

A source of annoyance for me has been to have to remember to turn on "Original Sound For Musicians" (OSFM) for every single broadcast. It used to be possible to turn the option on for a specific audio source and have that setting persist for each meeting. This ability was removed in late 2022, much to the displeasure of many customers.

If you read through the posts in that thread, you'll see that a Zoom employee has made statements, between last fall and December that one or more solutions are in development and coming soon.

If you don't want to wait for that, a couple of posts in the that thread refer to workarounds, one being that you can reinstall Zoom with an MSI installer, with a command line configuration option "EnableOriginalSound=1". A later post describes that alternatively, a registry key can be added to accomplish the same thing.

This Zoom Knowledge Article documents where to download the MSI installation file, how to install Zoom within a command/terminal window and the full list of configuration options that can be used.

I tested installing with these options:

Code: Select all

msiexec /package ZoomInstallerFull.msi /norestart  ZConfig="EnableSpotlightSelf=1;EnableOriginalSound=1”

This is working perfectly for me. One caveat; this method prevents you from toggling OSFM off and on using the banner in the top left of the meeting window. However you can go into the audio settings window and change it there.

[russellhltn]

Since you got it working, you can probably poke around the registry for Zoom and see if you can find the setting.

[danpass]

Since you got it working, you can probably poke around the registry for Zoom and see if you can find the setting.

This post in the above mentioned thread has the registry info.

[russellhltn]

Good to know. Thanks!

[wgotzmann]

Wonderful - and frustrating
This is a problem for many in our stake - they forget and or donot understand what this does

[danpass]

Since you got it working, you can probably poke around the registry for Zoom and see if you can find the setting.

This post in the above mentioned thread has the registry info.

I've now also tried the registry change method referenced above. It does NOT permanently cause OSFM to be enabled and turned on by default. You still have to enable the option in the audio settings panel. However, when you enable it, it does turn the option on automatically. So it saves you from forgetting to click on the banner to toggle it on, after you enable.

In contrast, reinstalling Zoom, using the MSI installer with the above mentioned command line option, does cause all subsequent started meetings to have OSFM enabled and turned on by default.

[danpass]

A new post has been posted to the Zoom forum thread I linked to above. I've copied it below:

For those working through workflow challenges surrounding Zoom’s audio profiles, such as Original Sound, we wanted to provide updated guidance on how to utilize our existing tools and share some insight into new solutions we’ve recently introduced.

The audio product team at Zoom previously introduced a change to Original Sound that makes the in-meeting toggle revert to OFF between meetings. The motivation for the change was to address the issue where users were activating original sound in situations where they shouldn’t have been using that setting, causing poor meeting audio experiences as a result. For example, a music student turns on Original Sound for music class, but then goes to history class and disrupts the entire meeting with echo problems that derail the conversation. Unintentionally, a bug was also introduced as part of this change that also caused the in-session toggle for Original Sound to reset to OFF when joining or leaving breakout rooms.

As you have noted in this thread, the above change made a significant impact to music teachers, podcast producers, and event professionals who use Original Sound as part of their daily activities. We have found that these customers generally fall into two categories:

1. They themselves wish to use original sound (such as those with pro setups / mics). Changing this setting every time they change between meetings or breakout rooms is frustrating, and if they forget to do it, it could significantly degrade their audio without them realizing.
2. They need to coach other people to turn on Original Sound (music teacher needs to explain to students how to set this up). This process has become more difficult to explain to people as the settings have become increasingly complex and are no longer persistent in all cases.

We would now like to share how we are addressing these concerns:

1) The bug that caused the Original Sound in-session toggle to revert to OFF when moving between Breakout Rooms has been resolved as of Zoom Client Release 5.15.10. Please update to the latest version of Zoom to solve this issue.

2) Only for customers in Category 1 (you want to use Original Sound all the time for yourself), please watch these video tutorials and resources detailing how to take advantage of an advanced setting for the Zoom installer, which allows you to change Original Sound to always be on. The selected Audio Profile and the in-session toggle will be enabled after this tutorial. This solution is most helpful in situations where Zoom is installed in a location and on a computer that is always suited to use Original Sound for all meetings. We do not recommend this approach for coaching others (Category 2) or if you frequently need to toggle the state of Original Sound (such as on a laptop, where at home you may want it ON but on-the-go you may want it OFF).

3) For customers in Category 2 (you need to coach others on enabling Original Sound for your meetings), Zoom has just released a new Zoom App called Remote Settings Control, which allows the Zoom host to set a variety of settings, including Original Sound, on behalf of other participants in the Zoom Meeting or Webinar. This tool will, for example, allow a teacher to obtain control of the audio profile for all of their students on Zoom, and enable Original Sound for all of them at once, or individually. To install this tool, please visit the Zoom App Marketplace listing for the Remote Settings Control App and for more information, check out the support article.

So for those of us who would prefer to have OSFM enabled and toggled on by default when starting a meeting, the only solution provided by Zoom is what I described earlier, which is to reinstall Zoom with the MSI installer (for Windows) using the appropriate command line option. They also have a macOS installation where Zoom can be configured in the same way. Their video tutorial link above takes you to a shared Google drive, where you can download instructions for Windows and macOS.