SPINOFF to how you look in pictures....

Anyone not recognize the sound of their voice when you hear it on a recording?

Like, on my answering machine message for example... when I call DH at home and he's not there and the answering machine gets it, I always think my voice sounds so different!

Anyone else notice that about their voice?

Re: SPINOFF to how you look in pictures....

I just notice that I have a much heavier Long Island accent than I thought when I hear myself on an answering machine!

Re: SPINOFF to how you look in pictures....

I hate how my voice sounds when I record it...it really doesnt sound like me...

Re: SPINOFF to how you look in pictures....

IT MAKES ME CRINGE!!!!

Re: SPINOFF to how you look in pictures....

Why your voice sounds different on a recording - Timothy E. Hullar in Scientific American describes the reason. The sound of your voice reaches the inner ear by two paths:

1. Sound conducted by air enters the auditory canal of the ear and impacts the eardrum, which transmits the sound down the middle ear and finally into the fluid filled spiral of the inner ear called the cochlea.
2. Sound conducted by bone travels through the medium of bone and body tissue directly to the cochlea in the inner ear.

But there's a catch...


Bone conducted sound is generally perceived to have a lower, deeper tone than sound conducted down the auditory canal.

So when you speak, what you hear as your voice is a blending of signals: one signal comes from your auditory canal, and the other signal comes from bone conduction. Since the sound of your voice originates from your head, the dominant signal is from bone conduction, which gives the sound of your own voice a deeper tone or bias. However, when you hear your own voice via a recording, the bone conduction signal is no longer dominant, and your voice will sound higher pitched than you are used to.

The bias is easy to experience. Just plug your ears and listen to yourself talk. Compare that voice to the the voice you hear with your ears unplugged. That same phenomenon is occurring when you compare the familiar sound of your own voice with the sound of your voice in a recording.

Re: SPINOFF to how you look in pictures....

Yes it's so odd.
I had to record a general message for our work voicemail system and I was dreading it all day.
I made them put me in a room all alone and I shut the door and I just kept doing it over and over and over again... listening to it- hating it- rerecording it.

I swear I was obessing over this dumb "You have reached...." message.

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i hate hearing my voice on recordings..ughhh...i feel like its not even me speaking...

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OMG me too I cringe.

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I hate how my voice sounds in recordings. If that's what I really sound like, hopefully everyone else doesn't perceive it to be as annoying as I do.

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I had to do all the voice recorded messages for my job's phone system and am constantly surprised by how I sound. I have to try hard to have a pleasant sounding voice.

My boss says it's serene and pleasing, although I just don't hear it. I think I sound bad. Ah well. As long as he's happy.

Re: SPINOFF to how you look in pictures....

Thanks for the explanation Beth, that's interesting!!

I still hate hearing a recording of my voice though.

Re: SPINOFF to how you look in pictures....

I've had a complex about my voice since I learned to talk, so hearing it on a recording is torture!