Have you ever heard yourself on a recording and thought, “Is this really me?” You’re somehow astonished by what you sound like. Us too. Here are all the ins and outs about this.
We are all aware that we have a subconscious, right? Okay so we have this idea in our head of what our voices sound like as well as what we hear when we speak. Doesn’t necessarily mean that we sound like that over a recording.
When we listen to ourselves we listen to two versions of our voice, explains Greg Foot. “The first is through vibrating sound waves hitting your ear drum, the way other people hear your voice. The second way is through vibrations inside your skull set off by your vocal chords. Those vibrations travel up through your bony skull and again set the ear drum vibrating. However, as they travel through the bone they spread out and lower in pitch, giving you a false sense of bass. Then when you hear a recording of your voice, it sounds distinctly higher.”
Another theory suggests that compression is the reason for your voice sounding so different. Compression of your voice is put into a digital algorithm used to digitize your voice. On cell phones and voice lines, your analog voice sound is “translated” (digitized) into proprietary audio formats.
What do you think is the reason why you sound different on a recording? Send your answers to the WhatsApp line on 082 222 1049.
