I presented a live global webinar today for the first time. Afterward, I was forwarded the recording to ensure I was happy with it before it was sent to the attendees and people who could be available at the time.

It was fine, but I sound more high pitched like Sam Smith and less commanding and bass like Dolph Lungren than I thought.

😐

I thought you were pretty good. Especially for such a dry topic.

Which bit did you like best?

It’s even worse when it’s live… I’d much prefer to never have to use a microphone but I’ve gotten use to it over time. But, yes, I never sound quite like I’d like to sound.

The fish puns. Definitely the fish puns.

😉

I have suffered the same, though. One listens in thinking, “That can’t be me!……Can it?”

Even worse when you’re on film as well. 🙁

Excruciating. I’ve had to listen to hundreds of recordings of myself during taped interviews. Hearing them being played back in an open court in front of a judge and jury is especially gut wrenchingly embarrassing because it’s all unscripted conversation and sometimes you are discussing things which many find extremely personal.

Were you being interviewed under caution for obscenities towards a two wheeled object.

I have picked up some sort of virus where my head feels blocked up and has also made me feel deaf. My voice booms in my head when I speak which makes me feel self conscious. I have to get rid of it

I always think ‘who’s that Brummie **** on the phone’, and then I realise it’s me…

Although Americans think I’m from London, and Brazilians think I’m Australian.

Left my mum an answerphone message, did not realize she did not know how to retrieve messages, so ended up hearing myself speak, I don’t understand how anyone understands a word I say, I sound like I should be recording songs with the wurzels, and combined with a stammer, I couldn’t hardly make a word out that I was saying.

For the last 27 years mrs_d has been telling me I can’t sing. The lead singer in my band disagrees. We did a recording session at the end of June. I sang, in a recording studio. After 27 years of the above, that was a very odd experience. Ain’t no stopping me now, sorry Helen 😉

Hate my voice whiney lincolnshire accent think Guy Martin but less manly with a stutter thrown in for good measure!

I’ve listened to myself on recordings and thought ‘is that frank sidebottom doing a really bad impression of Johnny Cash?

I grew up in leafy Cheshire (not the posh bit though. Near Crewe), mum’s from the Dales, dad’s a Geordie. I always considered myself northern but thought I was fairly accent-less until I heard my own voice recorded. I sound like a southerner doing a bad impression of Geoffrey Boycott.

I just sound like a thick chav. Not sure if I prefer to hear myself or see photos of my bizarrely asymmetrical face.

It’s not so much the voice for me (grr…) but the stupid and ridiculous small ad-libs that I’ve put into webinar / training recordings. There’s one particular one that has stayed with me for the past two years, I think of it now and I just say to myself “what a pillock”. Heaven knows what the audience thought!!

I sound much posher than I do inside my own head.

I always think I sound pretty dim 😳

When I hear a recording of myself talking I sound like the sort of person who I would think is a ****. The tone of my voice, my accent, the things I say are just annoying. I must be so annoying to the people I know.

I sound awesome.

Not really. Listening to yourself is among the worst things ever.

I sound much posher than I do inside my own head.

Even by Bearsden standards you sound posh Ben!

Even by Bearsden standards you sound posh Ben!

Which, since I’ve lived in Maryhill all my life, is f***ing annoying 😀

I’m from near Birmingham but having worked mostly in the south of the country and lived with a few southerners I believed I had a reasonably neutral accent.

How wrong I was, I apparently have a very deep voice with a very strong Brummy accent. This is mixed with the odd work that is pronounced with a Home Counties twang that I’ve picked up from the people I work with. It’s bloody horrible. There’s a video of my somewhere of me when I lived in New Zealand for a year. My voice has all the above combined with a good dose of Kiwi, “sweet as bro”. Kill me.

it turns out i sound like a posh, effeminate, bumbling twonk. A bit like Hugh Grant, but less charismatic.

(with a lisp, and a stutter)

I’ve worked in a yorkshire steel mill ffs, how did this happen?

Erm.. you don’t practice for VidConf’s or Web’nerdo’s?

Odd.

I’ve been running them for the last 14yrs… I’ve learned a few things over that time.
a) Only a few peoiple listen to what yo have to say
b) Most people watch you
c) Most people watch your mouth move
d) Most people look at gestures.
e) Hardly anyone takes notes and it’s left to you to provide scripts (certainly if dealing with the Indian Continent)
f) there are many others but you have to earn/learn them.

Over time I’ve gone from a “Light Jolly Home Counties” accent to “Grumpy forthright and segmented iteration”

🙄

Very disappointed when heard my self on the radio a while ago – it sounded nothing like the ‘chirpy yorkshireman voice’ that I hear internally – more a scotsman with no real geographical identity – i was certain they had dubbed my voice till the wife said that’s what i sound like.

Thats what 9 years in yorkshire and 40-odd in scotland will do to you.

recordings of voices on IT kit – especially via web services – aren’t to be trusted too much though, inexpensive mics, compression and filtering on digitisation, further mangling on IP transfer etc…

It could be worse.

I was filmed for my old work. I sound *weird* and I am wearing a big red helmet with ‘Camp’ written across the front. 😕

Edit: Evidence
[url=https://flic.kr/p/xfrrXz]Capture[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

I too detest the sound of my own voice.

Weird thing is I mimic people – I’m good at accents, always have been, taking off TV characters, comedians etc. My mates always take the p**s and comment how when we go off somewhere I speak to the locals with a bit of a twang, mimicking them. So, that’s odd, and annoying, and embarrassing enough.

BUT, I’m from Herefordshire, been around farmers all my life (grandparents farmed, as do most of my friends), now live on a farm. So my default setting is yokel. If I hear a recording of myself talking amongst my farming mates, it’s near incomprehensible.

In my job I speak to loads of people face to face and on the phone, from a wide range of places and backgrounds every day – and think my accent is fairly neutral. But alas, it seems I’m a carrot cruncher for life. What people must think of some farmer boy giving them the ins and outs of interstitial condensation I do not know.

edit:

I used to hate public speaking, to the point I avoided/pretended/hid/bunked off so as not to stand up and talk in front of the class in school.

5 years later however I was chairman of our local young farmers club and at the annual dinner held an audience of near to 100 for about 20 minutes, with minimal notes, and no preparation. I will say, despite what people (including me) thinks about young farmers and some of the negative aspects, it is BRILLIANT for boosting your confidence, public speaking, debating, and general life skills. I categorically would not have the career I do now without it.

Getting an audio plug in or simply adjusting your PC settings before you speak can make a lot of difference to the vocal tone 😉

Dislike mine also – pretty tricky when you’re a teacher 😳

I have a far deeper voice, and sound much posher than I do in my head. It’s not too bad, but I’m not a fan.

🙂

I have a face for radio but not, alas, a voice.