Nice thread! Voices are important to me. I hate high, hysterical women’s voices and loud men’s.
Do you like it? ** No. Not really. I sound way too young for my age.
Do you have an accent? ** In English I talk BBC English- or, so I’m told. In Dutch, with a slight Amsterdam accent**
Any impediments?** Nope. **
Can you sing? ** Very off key.**
Who’s got the ideal voice? ** Male: William Hurt, Female: Oprah Winfrey.
Can’t stand my voice. I think it sounds awful when I speak … one of the reasons I try to avoid getting recorded.
My accent is a plain non-Valley Southern California, though I often speak German (badly) with a French accent. I tend to stammer from time to time, but other than that I only have a speech impediment when my retainers are in.
I can carry a tune well enough to sing in a choir, but my voice just isn’t good enough for solo singing. That’s why I have a drum.
I like my voice. My friends claim I sound like a slightly gravelly Chris Schenkel. They also say I look like Kenny Loggins, which doesn’t seem to be a very good match for my voice.
Not much of an accent of any kind.
No impediments.
I couldn’t sing well if my life depended on it.
The ideal male voice to me is James Earl “This is CNN” Jones. Lauren Bacall would get my vote for ideal female voice, although Isabella Rossellini’s accent/voice combination is also quite lovely.
I’m fairly apathetic on that point… ever since I got my hair cut, people have been mistaking me for a male person, and apparently my voice doesn’t quite dispell that illusion. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not… 
I wouldn’t know if I did. Everyone I know talks like this, but maybe it’s just because we all came from America and moved here years ago. I suppose it’s slightly Southern, tinged heavily with Chinese.
I tend to hold my tongue most of the time, so I don’t speak a lot and my words come out a little odd. Nearly slurred a little (at least, that’s what my friends tell me).
Yes, definitely, but I sing so low that compared to my friends (most female friends and even a couple of male ones) I sound like a frog 
However, I “make up” for it by my ability to sing at the right pitch (albeit an octave lower than anyone else) and to harmonize if I can’t.
I dunno. 
“I had the misfortune to see a TV interview of myself. I sounded like Margaret Dumont.”
—And that’s BAD?
My voice is weird. I would not say I like it, but I’ve sort of made peace with it.
On the phone, 85% of callers who don’t know me call me “ma’am”, or ask if I’m my ‘wife’ or if ADHunter is available to come to the phone. (This ranges from a first guess that they quickly switch on if given any hint, to some pretty insistent folks who just about refuse to believe my voice is a male person’s voice)
I am difficult to understand. My voice is rather fluid and the words have a way of runningtogetherinaliquidsteamofsyllables – not that I talk fast, just that somehow it all runs together.
I accumulate regional inflections slowly and have lived many different places, so my accent is a mishmoshed hybrid.
I used to be able to sing but my allergies make a constant mess of my throat. On bad days I can scarcely talk without my throat closing down and choking me up and making it sound like I’m about to cry (I really HATE that).
I’d like to have the voice of James Earl Jones.
I like it. I get a fair number of compliments on it - which were almost enought to convince me to try acting. But I decided I liked to be able to eat, and I was never convinced my talents were enough to let me do that. 
If I could figure out a way to work in radio while still paying my (ahem…very modest) mortgage, I’d do it.
As for accents - people always assume I’m from somewhere else, but they’re never sure where that somehere else would be. I’ve lived in a number of different places, which I bet accounts for some of it - I spent most of ages 0-8 in Seattle, my mother was from Austin, Tex, my dad’s from North Dakota, my step-family’s from western Maryland, I went to college in Minnesota and I’ve lived most of my adult life in New York City. So that kinda covers it all. I do say “howdy” and “y’all,” mainly because they’re convenient (english needs a second person plural), but I go into New York when I’m aggravated. And my best friend is a lapsed Orthodox Jew, so I have a pretty good grasp of yiddish, too… but most of the time my intellectual pretensions put my inflections and pacing in a kind of Modified Connecticut.
Impediments: slight. I have always had trouble with the “L” sound and went through speech therapy for it. I never mastered forming it at the front of the mouth - I form it in the back, near my throat. “Particularly” makes me almost swallow my tongue.
Singing: I can carry a tune, but only as its pallbearer. I’ve been thinking of taking voice lessons just so I don’t sound so embarrassing anymore.
Ideal voice: Cary Grant? Peter Jennings? Judi Dench? Eve? (Seriously, she’s got a beaut, protestations notwithstanding.) Boris Karloff had a delightful voice, which he used for a series of children’s recordings back in the 60s, about the time he narrated the Grinch. (I grew up listening to him read Kipling’s “Just So” stories and Pooh, and Vivien Leigh reading Beatrix Potter.)
You aren’t the only one, sweetie. I love the sound of your voice. It is very expressive and sexy.
I know, I know, I am supposed to be talking about my voice, but I can’t help it
My voice is quiet, so people tell me, but I can hear it just fine. I am softly spoken, my voice is not very deep, just kind of average. I have a Yorkshire accent, not very thick, but noticable when I say certain words and when I am speaking to people not from Yorkshire.
I don’t have any impediments except for the fact that I am tone deaf. I cannot sing at all and don’t usually try.
Brynda has the perfect voice, IMHO. As I said above, very expressive and it has a lyrical quality. I could listen to it (and have done) for hours.
Rick
Do you like it? Not Really…it sounds especially awful on recorded media. I’m still convinced it’s a Maxell conspiracy.
Do you have an accent? I’m from NY…you have the accent
Any impediments? A slight problem with my F’s, which is why I usually refrain from telling people to fockoff
Can you sing? I’m that moron you see singing in his car on the parkway…but only when the passenger seat is empty.
Who’s got the ideal voice? Female: Allison Steele, The Nightbird. Male: Jonathan Schwartz
Do you like it?
I wish it were lower and louder. When I listened to a recording, it was much higher and softer than I thought it was; almost little girl-ish. I also cannot talk loudly; my voice is always drowned out in a group of loud talkers.
Do you have an accent?
Standard newscaster accent. I can do a pretty good murderous hillbilly accent, though, ala Deliverance.
Any impediments?
None
Can you sing?
Not at all; and I come from a family of good singers. I’m the only one who cannot carry a tune, but conversley, I’m the only one who can tune and play musical instruments.
Who’s got the ideal voice
Singing: Eddie Vedder Talking: Alan Rickman
I like low voices.
I sound like a cross between Scarlett O’Hara and any one of the three Heathers.
Oh, it’s alright. I’ve always liked Margaret Dumont, I just never wanted to sound like Margaret Dumont. Now she’s got company with Mercedes THE SOW IS MINE! MacCambridge.
I just want the voice I hear in my head. Or at least one of them.
I sound like a young-ish teenager, which is a bit annoying, seeing as I’m almost 19.
I have only a teeny-tiny hint of a Canadian accent (from my mom). I sometimes say “sore-y.” Otherwise, it’s a midwestern, Chicago Area-just-barely accent. My last boyfriend is convinced that I say “tired” oddly. When I get really annoyed, I get a weird New Yawk accent that I can’t explain. . .this was told to me by other people, not myself.
I stutter a little, but I think that’s just because I talk so fast.
My singing voice is on-pitch/key/whatever, but very quiet.
And a non-English-Accent James Marsters. Nice and normalish, but still with some zing.
My voice is absurdly sexy. If I am relaxed my voice is deep and smoothly resonant. If I looked like my voice I would be Sean Connery’s better looking brother. In business my voice is authoritative, commanding and re-assuring. It gets me business.
Damn voice making promises I can’t keep in person.
Do you like it?
Suits me fine. Nice and low. When I waited tables at Morton’s steakhouse, we had to perform an audio-visual presentation of the menu for each table, complete with individually wrapped cuts of beef and fish, and a live lobster. When I got several compliments on my speaking voice, I started to really ham it up. The filet mignon had “voluptuous lubricity;” the New York strip was “the Word made flesh.”
Do you have an accent?
Neutral Midwest. I lost the New York accent after awhile - I moved to Chicago suburbs from there when I was 10. I sound like a stoner much of the time. The slitted eyes complete the effect.
Any impediments?
I can’t say “Arnold Palmer.” It comes out “Alnid Parmar.”
Can you sing?
Yes, I do OK. Good news: I just secured my second paying gig, singing in a choir at a Jewish temple for the High Holy days. The money is relatively sweet, and I get to learn to sing in a new ancient language. My regret is that I never learned an instrument, which would have helped me so much with my sight reading and musicianship.
Who’s got the ideal voice?
The King. He may have spun out of control otherwise, but that heavenly voice never degraded one single bit.
Do you like it?
Not my strongest point. I’ve always wished it were deeper. Although when I hear myself talk (like back in college when I radio DJed) I am sometimes surprised by it.
Do you have an accent?
Growing up in southern New Hampshire, I can’t help but have a trace of an New England accent, but for the most part I think I’m pretty neutral.
Any impediments?
My brain tends to operate a bit faster than my mouth, so occasionally (especially if I’m nervous or hopped up on goofballs) I’ll trip over words or just blank. It comes out as a bit of a stammer, but if I really concentrate I’m OK.
Can you sing?
That’s a bit like asking me if I can play golf. Yes I can swing the club and occasionally hit the ball, but I’ll never make a living at it.
Who’s got the ideal voice?
Speaking or singing, I feel that as long as there’s a sense of confidence behind it, any voice can be good.
Do you like it?
As with most people, no; it’s too nasally and light for my liking.
Do you have an accent?
Who doesn’t have an accent of some sort? Mine appears to defy geography, however. In recent weeks I’ve had people ask me if I was Canadian (the usual assumption), Dutch and Irish. I assume this is because I don’t have a strong regional US accent of any kind. I also tend to pick up on the accent of those I’m talking to, but that comes and goes.
Any impediments?
I’ve got a serious case of the mumbles, which I can’t seem to do anything about. I suspect this is more psychological than physiological in origin, but there it is.
Can you sing?
Sing? Oh yes indeedy, and tolerably well. Unfortunately I’ve got the wrong kind of voice for either pop or most opera. I could stick to German lieder (which I hate) and Handel arias, but frankly you can’t make a career out of that. So I’m happy to sit in the “gifted amateur” category and stick to choral singing for the time being.
Who’s got the ideal voice?
Ummm…Samuel Ramey, maybe. Oh, to be able to sing like that… <sigh>
Ideal female voice: Sarah Vaughan, or Nina Simone. Give me a good soulful alto anytime.
I do not like it much, myself, but that’s because I’m highly critical about voices; others usually like it just fine.
I managed to avoid my local accent (Balto. MD) because I lived in England as a kid. People still occasionally mistake my accent for British, though I can’t hear it, myself.
I have trouble pronouncing my own name, and as a child I had quite a lisp (from missing teeth). It’s gone now.
I am a professional, classically trained bass-baritone - I do opera and classical recitals/concerts, and I also teach voice lessons.
Speaking: James Earl Jones. Singing: toss up between a young Placido Domingo and the baritone Leonard Warren (one of three people to die onstage at the Metropolitan Opera!)
Here I was thinking “rat rou ralked rike ris.”
I never liked my voice, but am often told it is low and “exciting”—whatever that means. I think I sound a bit nasal, low-pitched and nasal. Older people have trouble hearing me unless I up my pitch. Young children and babies seem to really like to hear me talk. I sang in competative choirs since 5th grade, a contra alto when I reached puberty. I’ve always lived in California, so I have no accent, just pacing and slang when I wanna, know what I mean? It’s,like,the cutiest. Oprah has a nice voice.