Getting Audio right with Virtual Sacrament Meeetings

[lajackson]

Not clever wiring - a different output on a programmable mixer.

Ah, clever computing. I should have known.

[failproof]

One of our organs (stake center) has AUX-in, AUX-out, and MIDI ports under the organ keyboard. For Stake conference I ran 1/4" TS cables from the AUX-out to our mixer, along with mics for musical numbers and an additional mic at the pulpit, and then fed the mixer directly into my laptop which gave me complete control over which mics and sounds were going into the Zoom meeting. This gave me great sound from the organ and was an excellent find. I'm glad an organist pointed out the ports to me.

For weekly sacrament meetings I successfully connected from the AUX-out to the EJ-8 and fed it back into the chapel sound system. I can control the volume enough with the crab box to make it sound just right and it's way better than anything I'd been picking up with a microphone to this point. I didn't want to confuse any of the ATS' that are doing the weekly Sacrament webcasts with a mixer, keeping it simple is usually better.

Of course this is the one organ I don't have the model number on, I didn't need it to look it up since I already have it working. My other two buildings have the Allen AP-22 and the Allen LD-34B model organs, which don't have the aux-out ports. I've been searching for a solution to add some kind of audio out from them, but turned up nothing of use so far. I've learned quite a bit about organs that I didn't know before and even discovered that both of these models should be able to play a selection of pre-loaded hymns if you didn't have an organist available. Not that it's usually a problem finding an organist, but did have me wondering how many wards and stakes even knew it was possible.

[russellhltn]

As you've found, each organ is a different situation. We had a high-end organ installed in our stake center a couple of years ago. I asked the installer about a line out and was told it was an option that the church didn't purchase.

Given that the organ in is warranty, we'd probably have to fly in the installer to add the option if I could somehow convince the powers that be to do that.

[Mikerowaved]

Our stake center is currently getting the whole audio/video upgrade package and included with that is adding an audio isolation transformer to the organ and feeding a portion into the sound system. Our organ did not have that capability before.

[russellhltn]

Our stake center is currently getting the whole audio/video upgrade package and included with that is adding an audio isolation transformer to the organ and feeding a portion into the sound system. Our organ did not have that capability before.

Lucky you.

For me, the sound system side was already set up. There was a wire and plug under the organ all ready to go. But the new organ didn't have that option.

[cole.chatterton]

So I have a comtek pr-75a. I am trying to have it so that for video I just have a webcam via USB. Then for audio I am guessing I need to have the setup shown in the document to plug into my laptop?

[russellhltn]

comtek pr-75a

I'd suggest reading the Using a Comtek for sound when broadcasting Sacrament thread.

[Wattsuk]

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.

[evancpugh]

We switched from YouTube Live to Zoom months ago using my Iphone 12 and the headset buddy adaptor connect by an audio cable that I'd strung from the line-out at the pulpit to the first front row pew (when I was using YouTube Live and my laptop). I connect the headset buddy (purchased on Amazon) into the iphone using the lightning adaptor. Also, we use the same zoom meeting link each week, which makes it a snap to setup each week,. The bishop and clerk love the report that is generated showing who was virtually attending. It's also nice not to have to worry about deleted the broadcast as with YouTube Live. (headset buddy: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OAW85ZG/re ... asin_0_img)

[natepfister]

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.

Can you tell me a little more about how you adjusted the volume? Is that through zoom?

I'm wondering if you have to adjust volume on the fly, every time you transition from a speaker/testimony to music? Or if there is a specific combination of settings and you can just leave during the duration of the meeting to get the best effect? I've been trying to solve this exact problem for the last few weeks (found your post today), I'm going to try your solution after conference.