by Danelle Karth

Created on: October 22, 2007

When you hear your voice recorded for the first time, it isn't usually something that you enjoy. It is a shock. Some wonder, "What's wrong with this equipment." Others are just stunned and flabbergasted.

It is actually quite a simple phenomenon though. How we think we sound is different then how we really sound.

Under normal circumstances our hearing is due to the sound waves on the air reaching our ears, "banging" our ear drums (yep that was a bad pun), vibrating the bones of the inner ear, stimulating the hair cells within the cochlea, changing into electronic signals which are then sent to the brain for interpretation. It is an amazing process, but the interpretation of sound is all based on sound waves.

There are a few things that can alter sound. For speaking purposes, the reason your voice sounds different when you speak then when you hear a recording of yourself is simple, it's all in your head. Not that you have gone crazy or anything, but the tissues and bones of your head effect the sound you hear. Your cochlea is stimulated by sound waves through the normal process, but also by the vibrations of your bones from the action of speaking. It causes you to hear yourself in two parts, the first out in the air through sound waves, and the second within yourself as vibrations.

The answer is simple, it's all in your head, literally!

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