[Music Teacher]

Hi,
I have had real trouble with echo at my end of lessons, over the last 3 weeks. The student & I both use headphones. I use an ethernet cable, and the students use wifi.

The echo in lessons at my end has been so bad I have had to switch the student’s lesson to Streamyard on the spot, and this has then had perfect audio (without changing any settings on my computer, and with or without headphones.)

Today when I set up a lesson for a student on FarPlay, not only was there echo at my end, but also at his end – despite both of us using headphones. This is actually pretty annoying in a platform that has a monthly payment (while Streamyard is free, and hasn’t had this echo problem).

Is there something I’m missing in Farplay? Why has this echo just been a problem over the last month, and not before, when I haven’t changed how I’m using Farplay?

Open to any suggestions!

[David Liao]

Hi,

Thank you for your message.

• If someone’s using a USB mixer like a Mackie ProFX6v3, make sure loopback is turned off. This is usually as easy as checking that a button labeled “USB 3-4” or “USB TO MAIN” is not pushed in (see our 1-minute video tutorial). If using a Focusrite Scarlett or another audio interface that, similarly, doesn’t look like a mixer, avoid choosing the audio interface’s loopback channels as the microphone channels in FarPlay. If you’d like to share the model of the audio device used at each end, I can look up the buttons to check or input channels to avoid.
• In addition to plugging wired headphones into the computer, double check that the wired headphones are selected in FarPlay. Look in the Devices subpanel (middle of FarPlay’s main window). On a newer Mac (from around 2016 and after), use the Headphones pull-down menu to choose “External Headphones” if you’re using headphones plugged into the Mac’s 3.5-mm headset jack.
  
• Try decreasing the volume of your own voice in your headphones by dragging the Monitor slider in the You (…) subpanel (near top of FarPlay’s main window) toward the left, all the way to muted, if you prefer. Adjusting the loudness of your voice in your headphones is one of the steps you can do in a session by yourself, without connecting to anyone, as shown in section 3, Configure and test your audio, of our highly recommended QuickStart guide.
  
  If you prefer to hear your own voice in your headphones, but with less delay, go to FarPlay’s Preferences > General Options. If you’re using Windows and see your audio device listed both in the “ASIO devices” category and the “Windows audio devices” category when choosing your Microphone and Headphones, choose the “ASIO devices” listing for both microphone and headphones. Try choosing a smaller audio buffer size (sizes of 16, 32, and 64 samples are good to try). On Macs and when using a Windows audio device (not ASIO), adjust the audio buffer size using the Audio Buffer Size pull-down menu. When using an ASIO device in Windows, change the ASIO buffer size by, instead, clicking ASIO Buffer Settings or opening an ASIO control panel for your audio device from the system tray.
• If using a headset with headphones and microphone sharing a single 3.5-mm plug, use the Microphone pull-down menu in the Devices subpanel to pick a different microphone (the built-in mic on a laptop or a USB mic, for example). Does the echo go away? If so, keep using a mic that’s separate from the headphones. In some cases, the headphones signal electrically leaks into the microphone signal when using a combination headset with a single plug, causing the other musician to hear an annoying echo of their own voice.
• Some Windows PCs (very rare) have audio drivers that make their speakers continue to play sound despite headphones being plugged in and selected. Fix this by using the Windows Device Manager to replace the Realtek sound card’s drivers with High Definition Audio drivers, as described in the section under “OR you could just use the native driver” in this post at Dell’s PC support forum.

Most of these suggestions are available in our Troubleshooting Guide, in the section labeled I hear myself in my headphones. To help students find this guide, ask them to click FAQ & Troubleshooting in FarPlay’s Help menu.

For lowest latency, FarPlay doesn’t do any echo cancellation, so if a microphone picks up echo, the echo will be revealed (unlike in higher-latency apps like Zoom, which use computer processing to conceal echo).

Thank you,
David Liao

• This reply was modified 4 hours, 4 minutes ago by David Liao.
• This reply was modified 4 hours ago by David Liao.
• This reply was modified 3 hours, 56 minutes ago by David Liao.
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