You too, the sound of your voice seems strange and unpleasant to you on recordings? Rest assured, you are not the only one, and there is a very simple explanation for that!
“Oh no, it’s not my real voice, it’s horrible!” It has surely happened to you, listening to a vocal message or watching a video, to feel a deep discomfort, even outright horror, hearing your own voice without recognizing it. Rest assured, you are not the only one! This is the case for everyone, apart from singers, actors and other speakers who are used to this difference. And there is a very simple explanation for this phenomenon.
When we hear himself speaking naturally, the perception of our voice is influenced by two modes of sound transmission. First of all, the air propagation: the sound waves penetrate by the external ear, vibrate the eardrum, then are transmitted via three bones (hammer, anvil and caliper) from the middle ear to the inner ear. The cochlea then translated them into electrical signals, which are then transmitted by the hearing nerve and interpreted by the brain. It is the classic path by which we perceive all the external sounds.
But for our voice, in addition to air propagation, there is bone conduction: the vibrations of our vocal cords spread through the bones of the skull, especially the temporal, right next to the cochlea, which converts them into pulses electricity, which then directly reach the inner ear.
The voice we hear when we speak is thus a combination of these two modes of transmission, with a predominance of bone conduction. On the other hand, on a recording, only the air propagation is captured. In fact, the recorded voice often seems more acute and less deep than that which we usually perceive.
The bone conduction amplifies low frequency vibrations, which gives our voice a more serious tone than that perceived by air transmission, and therefore by others. Try to talk about getting your ears: your voice, only broadcast via bone conduction, will seem even more serious! In the absence of the amplification of the bone conduction, the high frequencies predominate, which gives the voice a more acute (and much less familiar) character.
This difference between the voice that we mean on a daily basis and that returned by a recording creates a cognitive dissonance, because the recorded sound does not correspond to the “hearing image” that we have of ourselves. Our voice being intimately linked to our identity, hearing it differently can cause a feeling of strangeness, even rejection, the contrast between the two being confusing.
Another factor accentuates this difference: the restitution of the recordings themselves. Indeed, microphones capture the voice differently from our ears. The quality of the recording, the sound environment and the characteristics of the material used also influence the way in which we perceive our own voice.
However, it is important to note that this altered perception is mainly internal. The other people always hear you the same way, whether live or on a recording. Over time and habit, it is possible to acclimatize to this recorded version of your voice. Certain exercises, such as registering regularly and listening to yourself, can help reduce this feeling of discomfort.