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Sound can reach the inner ear by way of two separate paths, and those paths in turn affect what we perceive. Air-conducted sound is transmitted from the surrounding environment through the external auditory canal, eardrum and middle ear to the cochlea, the fluid-filled spiral in the inner ear. Bone-conducted sound reaches the cochlea directly through the tissues of the head.
When you speak, sound energy spreads in the air around you and reaches your cochlea through your external ear by air conduction. Sound also travels from your vocal cords and other structures directly to the cochlea, but the mechanical properties of your head enhance its deeper, lower-frequency vibrations. The voice you hear when you speak is the combination of sound carried along both paths. When you listen to a recording of yourself speaking, the bone-conducted pathway that you consider part of your “normal” voice is eliminated, and you hear only the air-conducted component in unfamiliar isolation. You can experience the reverse effect by putting in earplugs so you hear only bone-conducted vibrations.
Some people have abnormalities of the inner ear that enhance their sensitivity to this component so much that the sound of their own breathing becomes overwhelming, and they may even hear their eyeballs moving in their sockets.
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17 Comments
Add CommentSomething must be missing here. When I hear my voice played back from a recording, it always sounds higher pitched and nerdy (which I am). But people are always telling me my voice sounds deep, with some even suggesting that I become a radio anouncer. Unless they are being mean and sarcastic, they are hearing lower frequency content when I talk. However I doubt my voice is causing their heads to resonate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs it possible the microphone doesn't do low frequency well, followed up by a play-back speaker which also doesn't do low frequency well? Or do I really cause other people's heads to resonate and only need to hone my superpowers to make heads explode?
I bet your voice just sounds higher to you because you are used to hearing yourself from within you. So relative to what you normally hear, it sounds higher.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI went snowboaring last weekend. My goggles have a pink tint to them. When I first put them on everything looked a lot pinker. Then I got used to it and I didn't notice the tint anymore. Everything looked "normal" color to me. It's all relative.
Has anyone ever used a contact microphone on the neck, head, chest, or back, in addition to the regular microphone, to pick up some of the "resonant bone" sound? I've never seen or heard of anyone doing this, but I think it would be interesting to try.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere is an amazing YouTube video about hearing by Evelyn Glennie, the deaf percussionist. She gives surprising insights into how we hear.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_how_to_listen.html
I actually sound better recorded, you can record your voice here:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.entertonement.com/upload/clip
<a href="http://www.entertonement.com/upload/clip">http://www.entertonement.com/upload/clip</a>
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes this explain why some American Idol contestants think they can sing?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTelephone systems clip lower & higher freqs, so if you're listening to a voicemail type recording, that would explain the diff. I'll bet it's a small percentage of people who ever hear themselves on a full spectrum setup. I think video camera audio is pretty close, though.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI sound the same to myself when high quality recording equipment is used, as opposed to that of an answering machine, or a cheap recorder. But I am also known for singing well and have perfect pitch, so maybe my internal interference is somehow naturally minimized.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've gotten used to the way I sound recorded. Just kind of resigned myself to the fact that my voice is reedier than I'd like. Hey, it works for Neil Young! It also helps to use a large-diaphragm condenser microphone (the kind you see in recording studios, that usually have a pop filter in front of them -- the photo on this page is probably one). The advantage there is that because the pickup element (diaphragm) is larger, it has a larger "near-field" response, so it emphasizes the low frequencies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe near field area is where your mouth and the microphone element are acting as a coupled system, rather than the sound just going out into space and being picked up. So it's likely boosting the bass frequencies relative to what I really sound like to other people, but that's okay with me!
I assume your getting compliments about the resonance of your voice when your using a phone or other device. When your closer to a microphone it will process the lower frequencies and the higher frequencies tend to fall off. This is why radio announcers always sound smooth and deep; their using an omni-directional mic at a close proximity, some will even use a boom or uni-directional mic which focuses the audio point even further. Try turning up the treble next time your listening to am radio. This will be closer to what these broadcasters sound like in person. Another way to here your voice as others do is do cup your hands in front of your face a couple of inches from your nose and begin speaking.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe unfortunate thing is that most people's voices do not command attention and respect. It might be evolution: "leaders" are followed partly because of the quality of their voices. Now it's maladaptive. We know that morons and dangerous personalities can have great speaking voices.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe have to re-train to focus on body language and such things as words vs actions.
For KeithHandy : Around the time Led Zepelin II came out, engineers were experimenting by putting ear-hole microphones in empty skulls to record music. Apparently the reconstituted sound was of much higher fidelity and gave 'surround sound' in comparison to the best equipment of the time, because both air-waves and bone vibrations were captured by the 'phones.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour response to the question, "Why does my voice sound so different when it is recorded and played back?" focused exclusively on the mechanical and physiological dimensions of hearing, and omitted perhaps the most significant reason for the shock we experience at those times.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn 1965 Dr. George Klein at NYU's Research Center for Mental Health published On Hearing One's Own Voice: An Aspect of Cognitive Control which addressed this very issue. I no longer have access to the paper, but I recall its main point: that in hearing one's self in the third person one becomes aware of warded-off (defended-against) aspects of the personality, traits which would be anxiety-provoking or repugnant if fully conscious.
We are seldom surprised at how well we sound -- and are often appalled -- when we first hear ourselves in a recording.
My voice actually sounds startlingly deeper, and shockingly, just like my father's! I also hear pauses and inflections I was unaware of, and bits of my New York accent I thought I had "outgrown." My laughter in the course of social conversation seems sickeningly artificial and phony sometimes, yet the others don't seem to notice. It's like nails on a blackboard to me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt seems clear to me it's the "music" of my language which I'm hearing and which is sometimes so foreign, not the pitch or its content. However, of course, the more I hear myself the more familiar and less jarring this all becomes.
your right. if you were to use a professionalism, high quality microphone, like a professional animation or voice-over studio does, it would come out much closer to your actual voice, it wouldn't sound like what you think your voice sounds like.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi don't understand, when i sing on microphone my voice is normal. but if i record it on tape i sound like a 3 year old kid,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhy is this happening?
any solutions please i would be please to find out why it's happening. i wanted to record a video on youtube of me singing a cover video but it sounded very weird. i wasnt sure wether to put it on or now. people might think my voice is bad :L