Virtual classes with music: mixing audio

Introduction

Video conferencing works great for virtual meetings where one person talks at a time. But when trying to teach with music in the background (i.e. dance class), several problems arise. The music quality becomes garbled as it is played over a speaker and then re-recorded through another microphone. The music can drown out the voice of teacher.  Zoom has a feature to share computer audio, but the music can cut out when the microphone detects voice. The purpose of this tutorial is to mix both the instructor's voice and the music digitally so that both may be heard clearly.

This tutorial is for Windows devices. If you use Apple products, see 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdtuNrfXeEA . While this tutorial uses Zoom, the audio mixing will still apply to other video services, e.g. Skype.

I am not an audio expert--I just couldn't find any other instructions so I thought I would put something out there. Comments welcome.

Setup

Equipment

1. A Windows laptop with camera will work, however a separate USB Webcam is recommended so that the camera can be positioned independent of the laptop.
2. While any Bluetooth headphones with microphone may work, it is recommended to have a headset with a microphone that extends in front of the instructor's mouth.

Initial Setup

Headset

Pair your headset in Bluetooth or connect via USB. Make sure your headset works. Can you listen to music from your laptop/PC?

VoiceMeeter Banana

1. Install Voicemeeter Banana: https://www.vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/banana.htm . 
2. Reboot
3. Open Voicemeeter Banana
4. Right click "Hardware Input 1" and rename to "Mic". Press enter. Left click "Mic". Select the name of the microphone of your headset. Preferably, choose the one with the prefix WDM. Click the A and B buttons in the Mic column so that only "B1" is lit up green and all others are dark.
5. For the Hardware Input 2 and Hardware Input 3 columns, deselect all the A and B buttons, and click Mute.
6. Right click Voicemeeter VAIO and rename "Music". Only A1 and B1 should be enabled.
7. Right click Voicemeeter AUX and rename "Zoom". Enable only A1.
8. Left click the A1 next to HARDWARE OUT. Select the name of your headset speaker. Preferably, choose the one with the prefix WDM.
9. Left click the volume icon in the lower right of the task bar. Click the arrow on the left and then select VoiceMeeter Input.

1. 
   

Sound Calibration 

Calibrate the audio levels. Play music using your player, e.g. Spotify.  Adjust the following levels in Voicemeeter Banana:

• MASTER SECTION A1 slider: overall volume for your headset
• Mic slider: volume of your microphone. Temporarily enable the Mic A1 to hear your own voice. Don't forget to turn it off when done calibrating.
• Mic Gate dial: adjust it from zero to reduce background noise without cutting out your voice
• Music slider: volume of music for both the headset and remote listeners. You may also want to adjust the volume in the music player.
• Zoom slider: volume of remote talkers in Zoom back to your headset

Running Zoom

1. Test your audio by running through sound calibration again.
2. Start your Zoom meeting. During the startup, click Test Speaker and Microphone. For the Speaker, choose "VoiceMeeter Aux Input". For the Microphone, choose "VoiceMeeter Output". You should be able to hear sound during both the speaker and microphone test.
3. Before allowing others to join the class, you may want to do a video and sound test by also joining Zoom from another device to see and hear what the participants will experience.
4. Click Mute all Participants. This is especially important while playing music. Only unmute when necessary for discussion.
5. Once another person has joined, right click your video and click Spotlight Video. This important to keep your video the focus for all of the students.

Troubleshooting

1. Error message when selecting the A1 HARDWARE OUT. Try another prefix option for your headset like MME. Try a reboot.
2. If the music is garbled, in Voicemeeter, click Menu - System Settings. Try clicking the WDM Input Exclusive Mode once or twice.
3. For further instructions, see the manual for Voicemeeter Banana: https://www.vb-audio.com/Voicemeeter/VoicemeeterBanana_UserManual.pdf