This perception is very common and a person can be rather surprised by how their voice sounds when recorded. Most people find their recorded voice higher in pitch and somewhat thin, when compared to their spoken voice. The vibrations produced by our larynx are transmitted to our ears through both the air and our head. We 'hear' our voices through the air and through our body. A recording of a person's voice captures only the information transmitted through the air. When played back, we hear only the portion of the sound that was transmitted through the air, without any of the colourations produced when it travels through our body. If you plug your ears very soundly and speak, you will 'hear' everything you say, but your voice will sound very different than with your ears open. ------------------------------------------------------------ Re: "Try my experiment" I have found that playing a Jew's harp is a good demonstration of how sounds - and one's perception of them - can be varied using the mouth, throat, and teeth. (Warning: you should avoid plucking the instrument's tongue too hard if you are holding the frame in your teeth, since it can vibrate uncomfortably against your teeth.) This simple instrument is known by many names around the world. The use of the term "Jew's harp" in the English language dates back to the 16th century. Many websites are devoted to this very simple instrument, such as http://www.jewsharpguild.org/ .

The following experiment shows why your voice sounds different to you when played back from a recording. Stretch a rubber band around your thumb and forefinger. Pluck it to make a noise. Hold one end of the rubber band in your teeth and the other end in your fingers. Pluck the rubber band again. Does it sound different? When the rubber band is between your teeth, the vibrations of the rubber band pass through your teeth to your jawbone and the bones of your skull. The sound travels to your inner ear and seems very loud. "Your own voice sounds different to you than to other people because most of the sound travels through your bones rather than through the air." Violinists also hear the sound of their instrument through their bones. http://www.questacon.edu.au/teachers.asp Edit - notmrjohn - lol.. hope that's not what you did!

Everyone has an idea of what their voice sounds like, to other people. its when you record your own voice, that you realize your voice is not what you thought, at all. this is why disc jockeys and tv announcers go to announcing school for voice training and learning to speak professionally. your brain has imprinted your voice patterns, so it sounds natural to you. but, a recording on one's voice does not lie. thank goodness, if you make a mistake on your cellphone announcement, you can erase it and start all over again.

A minor cause of the difference is distortion caused by cheap recording equipment and microphones which tend to reproduce a "tinny" higher pitched tone. But the primary reason is diff in sound transmission between air and bone. Anybody else remember the "announcer" on "Laugh In" who used to hold one hand behind his ear? Radio announcers usd to do that trying to hear their voice thru the air. Boneheads! Today, DJ's usually wear ear phones so they can hear what they sound like, and good sound engineers turn the bass pick up up, uh, higher, no lower, I mean.. they add bass. BTW I played the Jew's Harp many years ago, I had to give it up even way before it began to be called a Jaw's Harp. I have noticed that my voice sounds way different than it did back when I had front teeth. Recorded or not.

Yes, I have a deep vioce on the recorder - but I know that's not really me! :)

Yep, it's really strange, seems someone else...

everybody's does. it's because when we speak we also hear the echo from our vocal chords carried through our bones in our body, since it does not hit the air and change pitch, what we hear sounds much different than what others hear.