An acquaintance of mine once left me a voicemail message and shortly after, commented to me (face-to-face) that listening to my voicemail greeting reminded him how much he “hated” listening to recordings of his own voice.<\/p>\n
He said the voice on the tape never sounded like him anyway….which is a fairly common response when listening to your recorded voice the first few times.<\/p>\n
More recently, a couple of visitors to my blog made similar comments, so when Pauline Harris (http:\/\/pauline-harris.com\/)\u00a0and Kim Standerline (http:\/\/kimstanderline.com\/) left comments about the way they perceive their own recorded voices on playback, it got me thinking that you too might find this information useful.<\/p>\n
Now, if you’re like my acquaintance, and you too hate the sound of your own voice played back on a recording, well I’m hear to tell you you’re not alone.<\/p>\n
In my experience many people feel the same way.<\/p>\n
In fact, back in the 80’s when I used to record my adolescent voice on tape using my brother’s old cassette boombox (remember those?!) I too hated the sound of my recorded voice, and continued to hate it until I discovered the reason why.<\/p>\n
Believe it or not, there\u2019s actually a rational explanation why many of us hate the sound of our recorded voice\u2026<\/p>\n
You see, the sound you hear in your head, when you talk, isn’t simply the sound coming out of your mouth when you speak. The sound you hear in your head is made of sound coming from two distinct sources, one internal, and the other external.<\/p>\n
The first source, I’m sure you won’t be\u00a0surprised to hear,\u00a0is the sound of the audio waves leaving your mouth, bouncing around the room, then returning to hit your ear drums, enabling\u00a0you to hear what you just said. In essence, its an external sound source.<\/p>\n
What might\u00a0surprise\u00a0you however is the unexpected origin of the second sound source. Without necessarily being aware of it,\u00a0you’re also hearing sounds \u201cinside your head\u201d through a type of hearing called bone induction.<\/p>\n
Simply stated, the vibrations coming from your voice box create a rich resonant vibration inside your skull, and this mixes together with the sound you hear through your ears to produce the sound that you perceive as your voice.<\/p>\n
The way you hear your own voice is unique….you are the only person in the world who can hear it this way, because you are the only person in the world capable of receiving both the internal and the external sound sources that make up your perceived voice.<\/p>\n
Everybody else receives only the external sound source….which incidental is the only sound source that a microphone is capable of recording, so when you hear a recording of your own voice, you’re essentially hearing only the external sound source….just like everybody else hears you.<\/p>\n
All the internal vibrations that only you can hear are missing, which leaves you with the perception that your recorded voice sounds nothing like the “real” you….no wonder many people hate the sound of their recorded voice, it’s easy to see why they’d believe something is missing, or perhaps isn’t quite right.<\/p>\n
Something IS missing….but it’s nothing anybody else can hear!<\/p>\n
Your recorded voice is exactly how others hear you. Stop beating yourself up about it. Embrace it.<\/p>\n
If you listen to recordings of yourself more and more, the “foreign” voice you hear starts sounding more familiar….and with familiarity comes acceptance. Who knows, given enough time and listening, you might actually come to love your “real” voice.<\/p>\n
How do YOU feel about the sound of your recorded voice? Has your perception changed over time?<\/p>\n
Let me know, I’d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n
Speak Up. Be Heard.<\/p>\n
Con<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
PS: Did you feel this post was useful? Why not leave a comment below and let me know what you thought.<\/p>\n
PPS: If you think others might be interested in this content too, don’t forget to click the share button and pass it along, after all Sharing is Caring…<\/p>\n
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