Zoom Instructons

First of all, for those of you are new to Zoom, here is the link to the official download site: www.zoom.us/download and here’s a tutorial on the basics: How join a Zoom meeting. To save bandwidth and give you a better experience, we recommend learning how to turn on and off your video. Here’s a simple tutorial: Turn off/on Video. I’m happy to offer assistance as well. Here’s my number if you’d like to txt or call: 406-531-8109.

Headphones and Monitoring

A good pair of headphones (or good monitoring) is a must and we recommend a pair of large diaphragm headphones that fit over the ear for the best sound. You can also make do with ear buds and Bluetooth headphones also work. Headphones will help you hear the sounds and rhythms of the Dunduns and Djembe and also soften the sound of your own drum which will help you follow the groove! We don't recommend noise cancelling headphones because the quick drum sounds (transients) don't work well with these devices (Some students have reported distortion and noise with these headphones). If you’re concerned about the volume of your drum, you can always put a t-shirt or piece of fabric over the top for a nice muted sound which still has all the basic drum tones: bass, tone, and slap. (Remember, if you don't have a drum, you can use an overturned bucket, a cooler, or even a table-top.)

Some of you may know how to send your device audio into a home entertainment system or external speakers. That’s another nice alternative that will give you the sense that our drums are in the same room with you. But built-in computer speakers on laptops or tablets are not advised as they have a limited frequency range and they’re not that loud (You won't be able to hear us over the sound of your own drum).

If two or more of you are on the same device, you can get an adapter that splits your headphone signal.

Wifi and Bandwidth

To get the best audio and video quality (without stop/starts, buffering, or glitches), turn off the wifi on all your smart devices and smart phones. Most folks aren't aware of just how much bandwidth they are using and every smart device eats up wifi signal. This will really affect the quality of your Zoom experience. The best signal will come from a computer that is connected to the internet via an ethernet cable. If you're on a laptop with a wireless connection, try to position yourself close to your router. TURN OFF YOUR DEVICES!

Before the meeting, we suggest taking a few minutes to get familiar with the settings inside Zoom, especially the microphone and speaker volume and settings. Because I’ll have these two settings selected, many of you will also be able to select “stereo sound” and to “turn on original sound” which can help with audio quality. Even though I’ll be controlling the global mute function most of the time, learn how to mute/unmute your sound and turn on and off your video feed.

How are the sessions going to work?

As the facilitator of the meeting, I’ll have the ability to mute the entire group so everyone will only hear the sound that Tracy Topp and I will be making. Because of latency (The time it takes my sound to reach you and yours back to me) we won’t be responding to the sound you’re making, but you’ll be able to follow our groove! And it really works.

Additional Tips For A Better Zoom Experience

After some students reported that during class their video stopped momentarily and then sped up, I contacted Zoom and got some really important feedback. Last year, during the early days of the pandemic, they were so slammed I couldn't get through to anyone at all. The tech I talked with could look at the data from my classes and saw that attendees were having stop/start issues. The geeky term for what was happening is called "Connection Broken (Socket break)". In laymens terms, "The internet connection was unstable due to a blocked communication between the participant's internet and Zoom's server (e.g. firewall, anti-virus).

#1 Update the Zoom App - The tech told me that many of my students are using an outdated Zoom app and that updating it may fix some problems. Update Zoom App

#2 Restart your device before a Zoom session - Rhonda, our dear friend in Calgary, recommended this last year, and the Zoom tech confirmed that it's a great idea.

#3 Turn off applications that may be using your computers resourses and possibly internet bandwidth. Turn off all those programs you're not using.

#4 Plug in and test your headphones (bluetooth or wired) before turning on the Zoom app. If you plug in your headphones after Zoom has started, it may not recognize them.

Specific to the video start/stop issue

#5 Turn off your computers firewall or anti-virus software. Zoom is very safe and secure and it's not hard to pause your firewall and antivirus software for an hour before you join a Zoom meeting. The specific error the Zoom tech observed is indicitive of firewall or antivirus software (or other processes) interferring with the internet connection. For those using windows, check out this link: Zoom Connection Issues. For those on a Mac, try this one: Disable Firewall.

#6 In addition to turning off other applications running (#3), some experiencing stop/start issues may want to turn off background processes. This is easy to do on PCs and Macs and can really improve a computer's performance and internet stability. I use a PC with Windows 10 and I was surprized to see all the background applications running that I never use. Turn off Windows background processes and Turn off Mac background processes

-Matthew Marsolek & Drum Brothers

www.drumbrothers.com and on Facebook