Do you actually sound how you imagine that you do?

[Dionysos]

(I still haven't got used to the search feature, so I couldn't find another thread on this if there is one).


Do you sound like you imagine yourself sounding? As in.. Say that you believe that you speak a certain way, but have never actually heard yourself on video camera or voice chat or whatever, and hence haven't ever actually heard yourself speak for a long time.

You'd think that you'd be able to hear yourself as you speak, but it doesn't seem to be the case (at least in my case), probably because you are too busy thinking and talking at the same time, and also listening for a response.


I've only recently heard myself... Before this there were a few mumbles on camera every now and then while filming some ruins and such were the last time I had heard myself a few years ago, and I haven't spoken in great length on camera or in any other way for me to hear myself since I was a kid. I recently (a few days ago) tried out my PS3 headset, and it throws your voice back at you so that you can hear if it works. I was advised to do this as I sort of built a big thing about how naf my voice is, and I needed to put this to rest.

I must say I don't sound like I thought I did (at least now on the PS3 headset, I'm not sure how accurately it picks up on voice). I had imagined that I sounded like a cross between Scooby Doo and Donald Duck (but in an English or semi-Brummie way)... Well ok maybe not that extreme, but basically a very noticeable mumbling, weird voiced lisp. Don't get me wrong, I do mumble a bit, and I do have a bit of a lisp (I noticed I might say z instead of s on occasion, making "I'm gonna kick your ass!" turn into "I'm gonna kick your azz! "), it just doesn't sound as irritating as I had convinced myself it did. I'd believed that I still sounded like a little boy as well, but my voice is deeper and less irritating than I thought it was.

Basically, the problems with my speech were basically confidence barriers. My lisp sort of thing isn't actually that bad, and it comes out more / at all when I'm nervous (which is all the time when in the presence of other people). Hearing myself through the PS3 headset showed me that I sound semi-normal (ish). Enough to survive in the world I should hope anyway.

It's a relief that (at least through the PS3 headset) I do not sound like I had imagined. I had always wondered exactly what I sounded like as I had essentially been put down about my voice by my friends when I was young, and then started to talk less and even missed words out of sentences in order to avoid being humiliated. It's been good hearing that, yeah there is something there and I still sound like a git, but not enough to make me cut out my tongue.

(All that said, I probably still do sound like an idiot, my headset might have been playing games with me )



So... I figured this could make an interesting topic. Do you sound how you imagine that you sound? Or do you sound completely different when you hear yourself back?

 

[Kandy-Sugar]

I always think I sound different to what I actually do sound like. >.<

I've listened to myself a few times and think 'Oh my gosh!'

When I'm around people with the same accent as me I don't notice how I sound, but when I'm around people who have very strong accents, such as Americans and the English, I notice how different my accent is in comparison.

It seems to stick out and I can hear the difference a lot more in my own voice.

When I listen to Australians on T.V acting alongside Americans they really sound like they have a very strong Aussie accent, when really I probably sound exactly like them.

I always imagined myself to have a much plainer accent because when you hear yourself all the time you don't really pay attention to it and don't think much of it.

Apart from that I also think I have a very bogany and sometimes whiney/annoying sort of voice.

I'll have to have another listen to myself on video to see what I think.

 

[Mitsuki]

Um, I can't really imagine myself sounding anything other than what I sound now to be honest. But I do understand what you mean about listening to yourself speak and thinking, "Wow, I sound horrible." I suppose growing up yes it used to bother me. I used to have a strong accent back then but over the years it's became a little more subtle, but you can tell it's still there. Now I'm a little more confident with speech but I'm not sure about how I sound. Like when playing with people here on Uncharted 2, people say I sound really young and 'innocent' and it's like...no I don't. It must be the mic. Talk to me in real life and I sound like my age I think, not some 10 year old.

 

[Ohri-Jin]

yeah I hate people having a gay accent
sometimes ( I mean really sometimes ) I hear my last words gayish as well muwhahahahaahahhaha lol

 

[The Illusive Man]

I guess I do sound a lot different to how I used to think I sounded, personally I always pictured myself as having a lot more of a squeeker voice than I actually do.

The first time I ever heard my own voice was a few years back after it had broken, and I was well hating it because I sounded so much like a common stoner, you know the "heeyyy duddee" kinda voice and it used to do my nut in that I actually sounded like that.

Having heard my voice again recently, I'd say theres a lot more calmness to my voice and its a lot deeper than I first thought, I'm suprised that having lived in West Yorkshire all my life that I would have a lot more of an accent, theres a hint of one but not as much as I first imagined.

 

[DeadFantasy]

Like when playing with people here on Uncharted 2, people say I sound really young and 'innocent' and it's like...no I don't. It must be the mic. Talk to me in real life and I sound like my age I think, not some 10 year old.

I totally get what you mean when you say that >_> A lot of people also second guess on how old I tell them I am. I haveta say ahead of time "no, i'm not 5 years old." I mean, I never actually heard myself expect when my mic echo's back and I think: "I don't sound like that in real life." I mean, at first I was a bit bothered but, doesn't really bug me anymore. I mean, I've gotten that when i'd talk to my friends on the phone who know me and what age and they always say I sound younger then i really am.

-sighs-
Ah well.

 

[Dionysos]

If you're saying that the PS3 mics make you sound different, then it looks like I need to find another way to find out how I really sound then.

Perhaps it varies on the person and the type of mic.. Or perhaps it has difficulty translating female voices (probably not, as that would be silly).

 

[Martel]

I used to think I sounded OK, until I recorded myself for a voice meme on Livejournal and played it back before I posted it. I sound so bored, even when I'm animated about something...like one of those schoolteachers who just drone on and on. I have one of those voices I can't listen to if someone else has the same qualities; I just switch off completely, because of the complete lack of any sort of emotion. Like a corpse. I sing better than I thought I did, though.

I can also detect my accent to a slight degree...I occasionally miss the consonants in words when I'm not thinking about what I'm saying, which aggravates me no end when I hear myself doing it. I can't hear what people call my "Britishness" though.

 

[Beyer]

I should terrible in my head! I hate my voice but when I hear it on recordings etc. I am like OMG I WISH I HEARD MY VOICE LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME! I should amazing! I actually made a video about...something, just so I could hear my voice (given I had only heard it once before that but still)

But, I love my voice on recording and such.

 

[Donald Trump]

My voice sounds perfectly normal when I want it to, it's not so much my voice though as how I speak. Generally most people here are quite lazy speakers, we/I rarely enounciate a word fully. Unless a 't' is at the beginning of a word, it gets pronounced as a 'd'. I'm pretty bad at that, I could be saying any number of things most times. However whenever I have to talk to someone who isn't used to it, I can speak fairly normally and make myself understood, although some people have trouble with the accent in general.

 

[Espurr]

If you're saying that the PS3 mics make you sound different, then it looks like I need to find another way to find out how I really sound then.

Perhaps it varies on the person and the type of mic.. Or perhaps it has difficulty translating female voices (probably not, as that would be silly).

I don't know, when I listened to myself on my XBL headset it made me sound like a stoned alien, I've never heard myself on the PS3 yet. I'm guessing that either the headsets are strangly accurate or there is somewhat of a voice changer installed in it.

With that being said I don't like my voice if I speak. If I speak normally it sounds too deep to the point to where it sounds creepy. If I speak with some form of excitement it is too high pitched. I am pretty sensitive about how I sound.

 

[West]

I used to sound more nasally than I heard in my head a few years back, but I think it was because there was a polyp in my throat for a long, long time that nobody even knew was there. After it was removed, I had expected that to somewhat change the sound of my voice, but my friends all said that I sounded pretty much the same as I had before--and none of them thought I sounded nasally anyway.

But when I hear my voice recorded now, it sounds pretty similar to how I sound to me. Kind of boring, since I think I sound pretty average and plain (but maybe it's just because I'm so used to how I sound?)

Anyway, I always figured that people heard themselves differently than how they sound to other people just because they're so used to the sound of themselves. Every single time you ever speak, you're there to hear it. I assumed it was much like the reason why people have difficulty recognizing their own smell; they're just around it so constantly that it doesn't even phase them anymore (unless you're all sweaty and smelly, or have some unusual scent on you at the time).

 

[Kim Taehyung]

I always thought that my voice sounded pretty good, at least in my own head.

But outside my head, the voice that the world can hear has a southern drawl to it. I don't even live in the south. I live in Illinois. xD (Though my county is considered one of the most redneck populated areas in Central Illinois...¬_¬) It sounds like a 13-year-old fangirl who obsesses over Twilight...with a southern accent, basically. Not that I obsess over Twilight, but you get my point...I hope. xD

Heck, I have a couple of YouTube videos that have my voice if anyone wants to hear it.

 

[Not of Rust]

It's wierd - when you hear me on camera or a recording it sometimes sounds like I have a lisp but I don't.

 

[John Marston]

My voice alternates for some reason, it really bothers me.

There are times when it sounds deep but it doesn't stay that way unless i try to keep it like that. Most of the time i just sound weird, i really don't like how i sound. I don't think there is a way to fix this either so i just bear with it

 

[Bambi]

I used to hate hearing my voice played back, because I was like, urghhh that well doesnt sound like me, it sounds horrible. If I knew someone was recording summat Id make a point to say little or nothing at all so I didnt have to listen to myself and cringe

Recently though, I hear myself one way or another so often I've just come to accept that that's how others hear me and I sound like a tard whether I like it or not

 

[Warbsywoo]

I definitely don't sound like what I think I do. I usually talk in a really soft voice like I'm in a library or something which is probably a habit after learning that talking really loud is frowned upon in my household. You'd have to ask someone who's actually heard me if you want a good description, 'cause I certainly don't know myself. xD

 

[Channizard]

I sound mannish.

My voice is a lot deeper, lazier and sleepier sounding that when I actually talk and hear myself. It was quite a shock the first time I heard my own voice back and thought "wtf is wrong with this mic?" I was shattered to realize there was nothing wrong.

I now make it a point to try and talk slightly higher pitched to compensate for it.


Also an addendum to this: Does anybody's thoughts sound different than their voice? The voice in my head sounds ALOT different to both the voice I hear, and my actual voice. Anyone else?

 

[alec]

^
My "thought voice" seems to sound more feminine and... "child-like" compared to my real voice. Haha.

Before I heard my voice on videos/voice recorders, I thought I sounded like some badass rocker chick, but apparently, I don't.

My actual voice, as it turned out, is deeper and "dorkier" than what I thought it sounded like. In fact, it is so deep that I either sound like a zombie, or a boy going through puberty.

 

[Will Graham]

The voice I hear when I speak and the voice other people hear when I speak are totally different of course, and for years I assumed they were hearing what I was hearing.

Anyways the country I'm from has a really recognisable accent and people always used to say OMG are you from ______ and I had to say yes. Now I don't really like my country so I do my best to faze my accent out and now I'm fairly certain I have a neutral voice, though if I get excited at all my accent comes out. Apparently now I speak slightly more quietly than most people and have a slightly posh twang.