[linux-audio-user] How to get good vocal sound

Bill Allen bwanab+lau at juraview.com
Fri Dec 9 05:58:49 EST 2005


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



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