Usb problems with Teams

Copper Contributor
I teach music through Teams and use a Focusrite sound interface. I have two questions...

1- When using the interface with Skype and Zoom I am able to have 2 channels working together, one for instrument and the other for speech. When using Teams, only the first channel is recognised. Any ideas?

2- I want to add another webcam via USB but currently when I try to connect my USB mouse it stops the sound interface working. Any ideas?

I currently use a Surface Pro with only 1 USB port and so I have tried using a 4 to 1 USB extension. This works really well for audio recording on my imac.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Stuart
13 Replies

@Stukh I'm not really sure what you do in Skype? what device do you select?

 

Your other problem is probably down to having too many usb devices that draw power, webcams can take a bit of power as would a wireless keyboard dongle. A powered USB hub, or surface dock would be the answer.

I have a similar problem using Teams. I have an iMac, (Focusrite Clarett Thunderbolt), and use an Office365 account supplied by the music school I teach at. Teams does not see the Clarett as a device, but Mic and Speaker selection does show the Focusrite Thunderbolt as an option. However when selected for Mic only input 1 of the Clarett gets through regardless of how the Focusrite software mixer is set. What I need is for Teams to see the entire interface. Is this related to the inability of this version of Teams to see embedded audio on a Mac? Is this new update that is out for Windows and supposedly coming for OSX going to fix these issues?

Thanks

@Stukh I have a similar issue. I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 2nd Gen. When I connect my mic to the input 2, Teams doesn't recognize it, but when I connect the mic to input 1 of the interface, it works OK. Any help or guidance would be really appreciated. For other Apps like Hangouts Meet, Zoom or even any other audio app in my PC, it works like it should.

@Stukh 

 

Hi!

 

I was experiencing similar problems and I think I found a solution. 

 

I'm working on a Macbook Air and my USB-audiointerface is actually a mixer (Allen & Heath QU 16).

 

  1. I turned on Teams and selected the Qu 16 as my audio device for both speaker and microphone.
  2. I turned on GarageBand (any other DAW should work) and enabled the tracks to display the Record-button.
  3. I made 3 tracks for 3 different inputs on the mixer. I assigned each track to have a different input channel (7, 8 and 13). 
    • For testing I used a dynamic mic, a condenser mic and an electric piano. 
  4. I then activated the rec button on each channel and Voila! Now I can use multiple channels on Teams meetings and calls.

 

I'll test this with another USB-interface (Steinberg UR22 mkII) and PC on Friday. I will also test with Teams live-event next Monday and try to remember to report back. 

 

BR,

Juho

I now tested this with a PC and a 2 channel audio interface (Steinberg UR22 mkII).

 

Connected the UR22 into my PC and turned on Audacity. Then made 2 channels in Audacity, one for each channel and enabled listen to playback.

 

I went to Teams and selected the UR22 as my input and output. Called a friend and both channels worked.

 

In conclusion: use a recording software with the number of channels you want to use. Have it on all the time as you're using Teams and have the playback enabled in the recording software. 

 

Works like a charm!

 

@Stukh So glad to have found your post!  I am using a mixer into my Mac as well (Mackie DL16S) and connected via USB.  What I have found after MONTHS of tests, is that Teams simply will only recognize/accept audio from the USB1 return channel (even though my mixer passes 16 USB channels back into the mac).  Zoom, for instance, does accept all 16 channels.

The workarounds posted here are good (mix through software), but I have another solution to share.  If you can adjust the patching on your mixer, and have SUB channels, create a SUB1 channel (sub mix) and have the desired inputs route to that submix.  Then, reroute the OUT of that new SUB1 channel to USB1.

This works for me and allows me to use my mixers controls (mute, unmute) to decide what inputs get sent to SUB1 (and Teams) in real time and on the fly.

Hope this helps and hope Teams updates to allow all USB channel audio (like Zoom does and many others) in the very near future!

@BobP980 I have the same exact problem. In Teams when I go to the config I can see the signal coming from both channels of the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 on the meters and I can hear them on my monitor speakers or headphones, but if I do a test call, the test call cannot "hear" anything on the 2nd channel. If I do a LiveEvent, the viewers cannot hear any mic signal going into channel 2.

 

Also it seems like the default of this device is to separate the output of the two channels into one side of a stereo L/R output. In the monitor I can hear both mics and one is on the L side and the other on the R side of the headphones. I feel like I could get past this if I could force the 2i2 to output everything on one channel, but I don't know how. Has anyone figured out more about this?

@Juhoelli 

Hey mate, I'm trying to use this as a work around but I'm getting lost a bit with the instructions. Perhaps you could help me out!

I have the same UR 22mkII audio interface and Audacity installed (ver 2.4.2).

I just don't know how make 2 channels in Audacity. The best I can find is the drop down menu which changes it from 1 recording channel to 2.

For the life of me I can't find any option that looks like "listen to playback" - the closeest I get is in the "Transport" menu where I can select the option Software Playthrough. It creates a kind of echo as it records. In any case I tried recording in Audacity and using Teams, I tried just letting Audacity sit with those settings and no luck on either.

I'd love to get more instructions on how you get the workaround. Currently, I can use the Browser version of teams to get both mic and piano to work together (for some reason the Browser version has no issues with multichannel audio interfaces). But th browser version can't share system audio! Which is needed when I want to share music examples with my class.

Your help would be much appreciated.
Carlos

@thefatraconteur Hi. I finally solved my issue doing the workaround shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxZ3o1aTyPY&t

Using Reaper (free to try DAW for 60 days) you have te possibility to enable all your interface channels in separate tracks. So you just have to add the Reastream plugin in the master track and follow all the instructions of the video. It works perfectly for me no, I even have the functionality to change scenes in OBS which is great for video calls. Give it a try and let me know if it worked for you.

@BobP980 

Thanks so much for the recommendation. The solution worked perfectly!

@Juhoelli 

My first post ever in a tech community, because it drives me crazy. I read your article multiple times and check my settings even more often. Track 1 for audio mic (via Focusrite audio interface) from line 1 and track 2 for music from line 2 (also from Focusrite audio interface). 

 

Apparently this workaround should work, but I cannot spot my mistake ... can you?

 

I would really appreciate this.

Thank you

Julian

 

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@Juhoelli I really appreciate the work-around! Thank you - I haven't been able to get it to work yet, but I'll keep trying. I'm also a music teacher who is trying to use multiple mics for audio input in my Teams meeting with students. I'm using a Soundcraft ui24R successfully to record into a DAW (Logic) and as FOH for a PA system. I can see the Soundcraft in the Teams setup options but I can't get it to register the input yet, even when trying the method offered.

 

I noticed that it's been a while since there was activity on this topic. Has anyone received any official response from Microsoft on this one? It seems silly to need the work-around here when other programs facilitate this no problem, so I'm hoping there's a solution in the works. Any news?

 

Thanks a million!

Rob

Die Antworten sind an und für sich schön und gut und beheben das Problem in seiner Wirkung, jedoch nicht die Ursache.
In Teams ist nämlich nicht Channel 1 angewählt sondern 1 und 2 daher liegt eigentlich das Problem nicht am Anwender sondern da müsste Microsoft eigentlich nachbessern.
In Zoom wird es ja beispielsweise richtig erkannt.
Sprich Ursache und nicht Wirkung bekämpfen ...
Aber klar, da sich bei Teams vermutlich lang wenn nicht sogar gar nichts ändert, dann ist so eine Aushilfslösung natürlich immer noch besser als gar nichts :)
Vielen Dank für die verschiedenen Vorschläge!