Lesson 10: Working with sound
Pictures are only half a production. ZoomISO also routes sound, sending the meeting’s audio to professional audio tools and keeping it balanced. This lesson covers the Audio Outputs tab, the audio devices it works with, and how audio can ride along inside a video feed.
The Audio Outputs tab
This tab is where you view and manage where your audio goes. It shows tables of audio devices, each row offering controls for the source, panning, which is left-to-right placement, gain reduction, which is turning a level down, and delay, which nudges the timing. Each row also has a preview meter, a moving level display that confirms sound is actually present on that channel. Meters are your friend: if a meter is not moving, no sound is getting through.
Adding audio devices
ZoomISO can use any multi-channel audio output device installed on your Mac. These are usually virtual audio devices, small pieces of software that carry sound between applications. Common ones the manual names are Dante Virtual Soundcard, Loopback, and Black Hole. In version 3 you can add several devices at once, which opens up far more routing possibilities.
To manage which devices are in use:
- Click the Plus button at the top of the page.
- In the pop-up, select one or more devices to add or remove.
- To remove a device later, use its X symbol.
Embedded audio
Remember from the outputs lesson that a video feed can carry its own audio inside it. When you set a video output to include audio, ZoomISO automatically creates a matching embedded audio entry in this Audio Outputs table. You can then apply gain reduction or delay to that embedded audio from the configuration columns, just as you would for any other row. This keeps all your audio adjustments in one place, whether the sound travels on its own or inside a video feed.
Plain-language reminder. A virtual audio device is just a way for one app to pass sound to another without a physical cable. ZoomISO sends the meeting audio into one of these, and your streaming or recording software picks it up at the other end.
In short
The Audio Outputs tab routes and balances sound, with meters to confirm audio is flowing. Add multi-channel devices such as Dante, Loopback, or Black Hole with the Plus button, and you can use several at once. Audio embedded in a video feed appears here automatically, ready for gain and delay adjustments.