# Hearing a recording of your own voice... What do you think of it? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 21, 2005, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567 "2005-12-21T02:36:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/41 "2005-12-22T11:21:41Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > When I hear my voice played back from a recording I’m always surprised at how high-pitched I sound. . Ditto. I sound like a little girl. This is a bit disconcerting; I am 51 years old. It is interesting to see how many people were taken aback at their deeper voices. This is certainly not the case with me. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/42 "2005-12-22T11:29:15Z")
I like the sound of my voice. I have a soft voice naturally, but I learnt to pitch it from my chest rather than my throat when I was teaching and had to speak 6 hours a day, and because I was teaching overseas I had to learn to enunciate my consonants clearly, so it comes out now as a very precise rumbling purr. That’s not my assessment, by the way - the ladies like it too. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/43 "2005-12-22T17:29:02Z")
Someone touched the reason (I think). When you speak, not only do you hear the sound externally (into your ears from the air), but internally as well. Plug your ears and speak and notice how rich and deep it sounds; the energy of sound must be rippling through your flesh and bones finally reaching the ear drum. Taped voice has none of the internal stuff. it’s like someone turned the bass knob to 0. And, yes, I hate my taped voice too. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/44 "2005-12-22T18:15:39Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Taped voice has none of the internal stuff. it’s like someone turned the bass knob to 0. I suppose if you’ve been recorded from a bit of a distance, with a cheap microphone, with the ambient room noise in evidence, you won’t be able to discern much bass in your voice. But if you have a good mic, with a pop filter on it, and you get right up on it and speak into the diaphragm, well, you can sound like the voice of god. I just finished recording my voice, and I gotta tell ya, it doesn’t sound like my speaking voice. In this job, I don’t _announce_ as much as I _intone_. I never raise my voice, and I am not supposed to sound like I’m selling something. I am merely telling people about a service that exists. So I speak fairly quietly, at the bottom of my register, right up on the mic. Then it gets filtered, compressed, limited and declicked. I never add any bass to the sound of my voice, it’s plenty deep with the technique I use (and being a deep baritone helps). That’s how I get that voice of god thing to happen. It also helps immeasurably if you had your adenoids out along with your tonsils when you were a kid. It creates an extra resonant cavity in your head, and your voice doesn’t sound all nasal and soft. An answering machine or portable cassette recorder with a built-in condenser mic are not the best way to judge what you really sound like. They will pick up the sound waves your larynx makes, but they are not a true representation of what you actually sound like. If you ever get the opportunity, see if you can be recorded with good equipment. _That’s_ what you sound like. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/45 "2005-12-22T18:37:24Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > When I grow up, I want to be **fishbicycle**. Boy, there’s a sentence that’s never been uttered before! There may be a physiological barrier or two to overcome, but hey, goals are good! Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/46 "2005-12-22T18:40:45Z")
I heard my own voice message a few months ago and was surprised to find out that I sound like a gay stoner surfer on the phone. A doctor who I saw for the first time recently asked my dad if I had a cold or if I “always talk like that”. Grr. > [@ErinPuff](#): > > Whenever I listen to recordings of myself I notice how much I say “like” and other teenage-girl filler words. Ugh. Yeah, me too. I also become aware of it when I leave California… I, too, have been told my voice is deep and sexy. A girl I had a fling with last semester told me a lot that she was mesmerized by my voice. To me, though, I just sound like a typical stoned-off-the-rocker Californian. > [@FlyingRamenMonster](#): > > My voice sounds nasal when recorded, and acquires an American accent. Is this universal? A lot of Brits and Aussies sound American when they’re singing; I’ve always wondered if it was the singing or the recording, or an intentional effect. BTW, I’m not very good at volume control. Sometimes I’m too soft, and a lot of the time I’m too loud. A couple of times, I’ve had people overhear me say things I really didn’t want them to hear. > [@jsgoddess](#): > > Brave souls can listen here. I can see why people think your accent is faked. You have a sweet voice, though. Me gusta. ---
**Author:** ![rackensack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/47 "2005-12-22T19:12:21Z")
Hate it. I’m told that other people like my speaking voice, and I know that (especially when I’m concentrating) I’m articulate and have a very neutral American broadcast accent (despite having grown up in rural Arkansas). I heard myself on the radio for the first time at age 8 – a family friend had a local radio show, and called on me to provide a “kid’s perspective” on his topics a couple of times. The shows were taped in advance, so I was able to listen to the broadcasts. I was amazed at how different I sounded from what I thought I sounded like. So I’ve known for over 30 years that there’s a huge difference, but even four years of college radio and a host of other public speaking experiences have made me like the way I sound any better than I did those first couple of times. I’ve recently had to record some training sessions I delivered for a customer, and I didn’t like having to listen to myself later at all. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/48 "2005-12-22T21:40:29Z")
I’ve always hated my voice. I sound like a drunk man. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/49 "2005-12-22T21:42:47Z")
I sound like Cindy Brady, lisp and all. Not what it sounds like in my head. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/50 "2005-12-22T21:47:27Z")
My voice sounds deeper and manly. It’s always been a problem for me, though, because it’s hard for me to match pitches, since my voice is actually lower than I hear it in my head. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/51 "2005-12-22T21:57:25Z")
My voice is one of the few things about myself that I like. It’s relatively deep, without the bass boom that you get from very big guys, and I have a reasonably educated-sounding [RP](http://www.yaelf.com/rp.shtml) accent. I’ve done a small amount of voiceover and radio work - I may have mentioned this before, but for a while I was the voice of Dunkin’ Donuts in the Philippines. In the past, girls swooned on the phone, only to be disappointed when then met me. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Godfrey\_Daniels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Godfrey\_Daniels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Godfrey_Daniels)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/52 "2005-12-22T22:20:02Z")
I’ve had my voice recorded by professionals on a few occasions. I have an OK singing voice, but it lacks any ‘edge’ that would make it more interesting. To me, it just sounds boring. ---
**Author:** ![Thirty-Nine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f0a364/32.png) [@Thirty-Nine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thirty-Nine)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/53 "2005-12-22T22:35:21Z")
It sounds like a few of my 'Ro’s border on 'Wo’s, which is the only thing that bothers me about it. It’s also comes out slightly deeper, which makes it less clear than I imagine. My accent is messed up from years in an international school - American speech patterns with an English accent. Funnily enough, when I was a kid, I was always deeply dissapointed with how high it sounded. It’s almost like my inner-voice is fixed at a certain level. However, my voice changes depending on my mood and who I’m with. The less comfortable I am with the situation, the deeper and more monotonous my voice becomes. ---
**Author:** ![Telperien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@Telperien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperien)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/54 "2005-12-23T05:29:03Z")
My voice sounds sort of deep and sultry in my head. I hate my recorded voice, though. It’s much higher and I sound like a little girl. I consciously pitch my voice lower when I speak, when I think about it, to overcome this. My favorite voice of mine is my operator voice, which I started using when I worked as an operator, and it’s how I always answer the phone now. At least no one confuses me with my mother anymore! ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/55 "2005-12-23T16:37:22Z")
In my head, my voice sounds deep and urbane. Whenever I listen to a recording of it, however, I find it to be fairly high, and the delivery rather labored. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567/56 "2005-12-23T16:58:23Z")
I hate the sound of my voice. In my head, I sound all authoritative and don’t-mess-with-me. On a recording, I sound like a haughty child. I don’t understand how anyone can stand to listen to me. > [@Lobsang](#): > > Recently I heard my own voice recorded. At the time of speaking I knew it was being recoreded so it may have been altered by that. None-the-less I hated the sound of it… and at the same time noticed how very much like one of my brother’s I sound… who’s voice does _not_ sound bad when I hear it. I don’t think I sound at all like my sister (who has a very pleasant voice), but even after thirty-plus years of watching us grow up, we can still fool dad on the phone – he can tell who it is now either because of caller ID or because of word choice, not because of the voice itself. So apparently my awful speaking voice is relatively close to my sister’s melodious one. Go figure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hearing-a-recording-of-your-own-voice-what-do-you-think-of-it/336567.md?page=2)