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TikTokers freak out after learning how their voices really sound
TikTokers are in disbelief after learning what their voices actually sound like.
TikTok user Stevie (@radioireallyneedhead) stitched a video with Cedar (@cedar_el) to explain how you can “hear your voice as it normally sounds without having to record yourself.”
“The whole reason why your voice sounds so different when you talk normally compared to when you hear yourself in a recording is…. because you’re basically hearing the sound waves of your voice with no distortion.”
When you hear yourself speaking in conversation, on the other hand, “the sound waves in your voice are bouncing against the bones in your skull,” which can “cause a lot of distortion.”
According to Timothy E. Hullar, a professor of otolaryngology at the Oregon Health & Science University, we perceive sound differently when we speak versus when a recording of our voice because sound reaches the “inner ear by way of two separate paths.”
“When you speak, sound energy spreads in the air around you and reaches your cochlea through your external ear by air conduction. Sound also travels from your vocal cords and other structures directly to the cochlea, but the mechanical properties of your head enhance its deeper, lower-frequency vibrations. The voice you hear when you speak is the combination of sound carried along both paths,” Hullar explained via Scientific American.
“When you listen to a recording of yourself speaking, the bone-conducted pathway that you consider part of your ‘normal’ voice is eliminated, and you hear only the air-conducted component in unfamiliar isolation.”
As the video continues, Stevie demonstrates “a way to filter out a lot of the distortion.” That involves putting your hands in front of your ears, so they stick out from the sides of your head.
In a video posted to YouTube in 2013, vocal coach Chris Beatty used a method similar to Stevie’s. Instead of his hands, he used file folders to push the sound of his voice outward.
“Why is my voice so much higher than I think it is normally?”
With 26.7 million views, 3.8 million likes, and more than 25,700 comments, Stevie’s video resonated with many TikTokers.
“Why is my voice so much higher than I think it is normally,” commented @mexicanhistorian.
“Some of y’all need to sing and try this. Humbling,” joked @schmitshow.
“I have a RASPY VOICE? What in the hellllll,” wrote @spicybeba.
As many commenters have realized, the way we think we sound and how we actually sound don’t always align.
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