The voice in my head is wrong

[Dave Lenton]

A couple of weeks ago I got married, and one of my friends agreed to film the wedding. The first thing my new wife and I said when watching it was "do I really sound like that?"!

It was very strange. The voice I hear in my head when I think about stuff, and the voice that I hear in my ears when I talk sounds totally different from what I heard on the film. A similar thing happens when I hear myself on things like answer phone messages and so on - its sounds very odd.

I had thought that it was just due to microphones not being able to capture the full quality of the sound, and that some information gets lost leading to a change in pitch or something like that, but everyone else on the video sounds fairly normal. Its not just the pitch though, but my accent - I sound a lot posher on video then I do in my head.

Does anyone else find this when they listen to themselves? Its a bit strange to think that I can go through life not really knowing what my own voice sounds like. Its a bit like seeing the wrong hair colour when looking in a mirror.

[Sameer Jamal]

Congratulations on getting married, well after marriage everything is so different that sometimes we cant recognize even our own voice.

[Deepak Bala]

I have noticed the exact same thing when i listen to myself on the phone recordings.

[ankur rathi]

Originally posted by Dave Lenton:
A couple of weeks ago I got married, and one of my friends agreed to film the wedding. The first thing my new wife and I said when watching it was "do I really sound like that?"!

It was very strange. The voice I hear in my head when I think about stuff, and the voice that I hear in my ears when I talk sounds totally different from what I heard on the film. A similar thing happens when I hear myself on things like answer phone messages and so on - its sounds very odd.

I had thought that it was just due to microphones not being able to capture the full quality of the sound, and that some information gets lost leading to a change in pitch or something like that, but everyone else on the video sounds fairly normal. Its not just the pitch though, but my accent - I sound a lot posher on video then I do in my head.

Does anyone else find this when they listen to themselves? Its a bit strange to think that I can go through life not really knowing what my own voice sounds like. Its a bit like seeing the wrong hair colour when looking in a mirror.

My all friends say that you sound like a drunken person on phone. After that, I recorded my voice to confirm and found that they all are right.

[Sameer Jamal]

Originally posted by rathi ji:


My all friends say that you sound like a drunken person on phone. After that, I recorded my voice to confirm and found that they all are right.

Have some wine or beer then try you will feel better.

[ankur rathi]

Originally posted by Sameer Jamal:


Have some wine or beer then try you will feel better.

Okay, I will try today.

[Raghav Sam]

CONGRATS on your marriage!!

I too find my voice very different in recordings. It seems much more mature with a bass tone. Needless to say I like it...

[Raghav Sam]

Sometimes I feel my voice in my head to be in sync with the personality that I am. And that in the recordings is what I expect myself to be!!

[ankur rathi]

Originally posted by Raghav Sam:
Sometimes I feel my voice in my head to be in sync with the personality that I am. And that in the recordings is what I expect myself to be!!

... be what you are.

[Cp Baherwani]

Congratulations Dave for getting married.

As I remember reading during my school days, every human being hears his/her voice differently than others do. The reason being our ears get our own sound vibrations thru two mediums: thru air (sound waves) and internally (because the vocal cords and ears are very close, some sound vibrations are passed to the ear drums from within body).

I tried searching the internet but could not get relevant links to verify that, however wikipedia gives some good information on their article "Human voice"

_CP\

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

"Bone conduction" is the excuse I've heard. You hear your own voice largely though vibrations conducted through your jawbone and sinuses.

[Gail Schlentz]

Several years ago, when recording an outgoing message on an answering machine, I was horrified to find that my voice sounded almost like "baby talk". Yuck-o! Changed that right away! (or is that "wight away"??)

[Dave Lenton]

Thanks everyone for the congratulations!

Originally posted by Chandra Prakash Baherwani:
internally (because the vocal cords and ears are very close, some sound vibrations are passed to the ear drums from within body).

This is probably what makes the difference in pitch that I'm hearing, but what about the difference in accent? OK, so its only minor, but it is a bit weird.

Wow, the brain is an odd thing.

[Cameron Wallace McKenzie]

I always thought I must sound like Jack Nicholson when I spoke. Now that I've heard my own voice, it seems more like someon who's been drinking Jack.

Reality really bites sometimes.

-Cameron McKenzie

[Tak Ming Laio]

My voice heard by myself is different from that heard by others.
Others' voice heard by me is different from that heard by themselves.

The same colour seen by me maybe different from that seen by others.

Our perception are all different, maybe just we don't konw that.

[Tony Alicea]

Ha ha ha! Dave!

Mee-2 (me too)

Yes; I noticed a long time ago that my real voice (as recorded by external devices) is NOT pretty and sounds bad to me.

"Thank God" I don't have to hear it that way on a daily basis! HA!

Also, I look even uglier on video (than on the mirror). Just like with the voice, I look worse on video

[Tony Alicea]

Wait! Did somebody say that the camera adds 10 pounds!?

[Dave Lenton]

Originally posted by Tony Alicea:
Also, I look even uglier on video (than on the mirror). Just like with the voice, I look worse on video

Same here. In my case its because I can't see the full length of my nose when I look in the mirror!

Originally posted by Tony Alicea:
Wait! Did somebody say that the camera adds 10 pounds!?

*points camera at wallet*
[ October 04, 2006: Message edited by: Dave Lenton ]

[Tony Alicea]

Ha ha! How much is that in American dollars?

[Maulin Vasavada]

me too me too!

i have observed same thing for myself. damn, i don't sound well

philosophically thinking this should mean there are two things,
1. soul
2. body

so all of us has very good soul and bad body may be

Regards
Maulin
[ October 04, 2006: Message edited by: Maulin Vasavada ]

[Dave Lenton]

Originally posted by Tony Alicea:
Ha ha! How much is that in American dollars?

Almost twenty now.

[Dave Lenton]

Originally posted by Maulin Vasavada:
i have observed same thing for myself. damn, i don't sound well

philosophically thinking this should mean there are two things,
1. soul
2. body

Why?

I think it just implies a glitch in the software... sorry, mind.

I don't know if other people do the same, but when I'm thinking things through, I talk to myself in my head. Usually it takes the form of a debate between two or three different voices. I wonder if the language I use will influence the way I think - if I spoke a particularly rich and flexible language, would my reasoning be similarly flexible?

If I only spoke a very rigid language containing only five words, would by reasoning ability be flawed, or would my brain get around it by thinking in other ways such as in images/sounds etc? If a child was raised in a remote location by two deaf parents, would that child think in sign-language?

[Dave Lenton]

I've just found this page which discusses the issue a bit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir_Whorf

[Christophe Verré]

It was very strange. The voice I hear in my head when I think about stuff, and the voice that I hear in my ears when I talk sounds totally different from what I heard on the film. A similar thing happens when I hear myself on things like answer phone messages and so on - its sounds very odd.

Haha. I realized this at junior high school when I made some recordings of books for blind children. I couldn't believe I had such a colorless voice I still feel strange when I hear myself on a some video. Like "It's not me speaking here".

Congrats for getting married