What hardware do I need for online lessons?

VimFuego

I'm a bit of a luddite, so don't know much about these 'ere computers, but it looks like I'll be taking online lessons via zoom at some point. I know I need to install zoom, but what hardware am I likely to need to be able to have music lessons? For info, the lessons will be for violin.

Fretwired

A PC, some speakers and a soundcard, a decent internet connection and a Zoom account. Alternatively, you could use an iPad or even a phone if your PC is located in an unsuitable space.

If you remember @tonyteach from this forum - he gives Zoom lessons and just uses an iPad.

VimFuego

Fretwired said:

A PC, some speakers and a soundcard, a decent internet connection and a Zoom account. Alternatively, you could use an iPad or even a phone if your PC is located in an unsuitable space.

If you remember @tonyteach from this forum - he gives Zoom lessons and just uses an iPad.

cool. I was planning on using my laptop, does that contain all the things needed? I have pretty good headphones. 

Snags

A laptop should have camera and mic built-in; as long as they actually work you'll be fine. Anything else is just refinement on top, which is a matter of personal taste.

Install Zoom and have a test call with a friend. If that works, you should be OK for the lesson too.

VimFuego

Snags said:

A laptop should have camera and mic built-in; as long as they actually work you'll be fine. Anything else is just refinement on top, which is a matter of personal taste.

Install Zoom and have a test call with a friend. If that works, you should be OK for the lesson too.

coolio, I'll give it a try, thanks

Fretwired

VimFuego said:

Fretwired said:

A PC, some speakers and a soundcard, a decent internet connection and a Zoom account. Alternatively, you could use an iPad or even a phone if your PC is located in an unsuitable space.

If you remember @tonyteach from this forum - he gives Zoom lessons and just uses an iPad.

cool. I was planning on using my laptop, does that contain all the things needed? I have pretty good headphones. 

Ideal most laptops have decent camera. Install Zoom and do a test to fine tune everything.

viz

Yup I just use my laptop. Remember the strings are a 5th apart so it’s different fingering for Smoke on the Water. 

Grunfeld

The mics on laptops or even good cameras are often a bit rubbish tbh. 

I've been doing lots of Zoom work for my private clients and without breaking the bank I got some LED lights, a better webcam, but the most significant improvement was when I got a decent microphone.  Even my old Zoom H2N was a massive improvement over the computer/ webcam built in mics -- but for £93 the Rode NT-USB Mini will do me for the foreseeable. 

I'd guess for violin lessons the mic would also be more important than the camera, but as it happens the £40 camera was a step up, and a £13 USB port was all I needed cos I started running out of sockets!

sev112

viz said:

Yup I just use my laptop. Remember the strings are a 5th apart ...

?  Or am I missing a joke? 

viz

sev112 said:

viz said:

Yup I just use my laptop. Remember the strings are a 5th apart ...

?  Or am I missing a joke? 

No, just a non sequitur. Carry on

VimFuego

viz said:

sev112 said:

viz said:

Yup I just use my laptop. Remember the strings are a 5th apart ...

?  Or am I missing a joke? 

No, just a non sequitur. Carry on

FFS I've just spent 10 mins measuring my fiddle to see how far the strings are apart and you were talking about garden implements?!? Not happy!!!

fretmeister

Zoom setting tip. Turn off the audio filtering designed to cut background noise.
It will try to block the music to let voice through.

Turn it off for better music transmission.

only works in Pc and mac. Not iPad though.

Grunfeld

fretmeister said:

Zoom setting tip. Turn off the audio filtering...
It will try to block the music

My guitar playing would easily defeat that then....

Danny1969

I found Skype better for teaching than Zoom for one to one lessons. The audio was far too laggy on Zoom for some reason.  

guitartango

I do Teams (like zoom) every week with the laptop Mic and built in webcam, no need for expensive mics or webcam.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=headsets+with+usb&hvadid=80745416836805&hvbmt=bp&hvdev=t&hvqmt=p&tag=mh0a9-21&ref=pd_sl_418jtmhlri_p

Lestratcaster

I use my laptop for Zoom guitar lessons. It has an internal webcam already built-in but its a bit crap so I use a Logitech 1080HD one think its the C920 or something. When I first started I had a USB mic to capture the sound of my voice and the live in the room amp sound from my guitar. Then I used an external bluetooth speaker for audio playback. Ran with this for several months during the lockdown and it did the job. Laptops/PC give better audio/video option controls.

Since, I have bought an audio interface so I can run my guitar and voice into the same device so its a bit more of a direct sound. I now do xlr mic into port 1 and my Kemper direct into port 2. For audio I just use share audio in Zoom to play music. I can control levels all from one device. Sound is a bit clearer cos the interface acts as a soundcard too (Realtek drivers on Windows is crap).

Then in Zoom software wise a few tweaks like using original sound and disabling noise suppression.

Oh and using an ethernet connection is preferable for a better experience.

I do find though it doesn't matter how fancy of elaborate your set up is if the other person has a crap internet connection and using a smartphone it means f**k all!!

longshins

I highly recommend the Steinberg UR22c. It has a software mixer that allows you to ‘loopback’ your audio so that aids you in that you don’t have to share computer sound in teams/zoom. The mixer also has a built in amp sim, reverb, eq and compressor. It’s made my online teaching so much better.

Lestratcaster

I believe the Focusrite one has loopback too but I don't know how to use it properly. The share audio thing has been alright so far so I've just ran with that but it'd be good to actually mix audio before it hits Zoom.