Nigel Henry wrote: > >This is an interesting comment. I find the same when I record speech onto, for >instance a cassette recorder. I have an accent coming from the Channel >Islands, but don't notice it when I speak. But playing back my recorded voice >is very evident. It may have something to do with the very positive feedback >you get to the brain when you speak or sing, whether your monitoring your >singing/speech with or without headphones. Whereas, when you listen to >yourself after making a recording, your brain is not receiving positive >feedback from your voice. Your brain through your ears is sort of hearing >these sounds for the first time, from another location, and also some delay >involved between the recording and the playback. Of course the other quite >strange behaviour is, when you are listening to music through the headphones >and speak to someone at the same time, you actually speak louder without >realising it, indicating again that the brain, by virtue of positive feedback >from your voice is controlling the level of your voice. A problem noticeable >with folks who have become hearing impaired, or totally deaf. There's >obviously a lot of stuff going on that you don't know about when you sing. >It's only when you listen to the recording that you become aware of it. > >Think Karaoke, and you've had a few too many. What would that sound like the >next day. (That was just for fun). It's been great reading this thread. >Nigel. > > I've read before that a good part of the reason that we don't hear ourselves as others do is literally because we don't hear ourselves as others do - others perceive our voice directly from mouth to ear. When you speak, you hear yourself primarily through your skull and only secondarily through your ear. It gives a completely false impression. I play the sax and that has the same effect and maybe even stronger due to the hard grip of the teeth on the mouthpiece. I always prefer to monitor through headphones so I can hear the sound as others will hear it. Regards, Bill
