Subject: Re: own voice versus recorded voice perception From: Matthew Winn <mwinn@xxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 08:17:28 -0400 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>When you speak, you’re hearing yourself through bone and air-conduction, but the air-conduction is altered because of the vocalization-induced acoustic reflex. Since the middle ear system is stiffened when we talk, the transmission of low frequencies should be attenuated, and high frequencies emphasized. This (along with previous discussion on bone-conduction hearing) may help to explain why many think their voice is so low and boomy on recordings, since one's recorded voice does not induce the the filter of the acoustic reflex. Matt Matthew B. Winn University of MD Hearing & Speech Sciences >>> Steve Beet <steve.beet@xxxxxxxx> 04/10/09 6:34 AM >>> Ben, Georg von Bekesy did a lot of work on bone conduction in the late 1950s/60s. It included a paper "On the hearing of one's own voice by bone conduction", from JASA if I remember correctly (I have a copy in a box in my loft, but can't get to it at the moment to confirm the details). Others have sporadically re-visited the topic since then. There's a very brief but informative description of the phenomenon here: http://onderwijs1.amc.nl/medfysica/doc/Bone%20conduction.htm Steve Beet -----Original Message----- From: AUDITORY - Research in Auditory Perception [mailto:AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Hornsby, Benjamin Wade Young Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 1:44 AM To: AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx Subject: own voice versus recorded voice perception Hi All, This is a bit of an odd request but I've been asked to comment on the question "Why does one's voice sound different to them when they hear it played back from a recording? And why do people normally dislike the sound of their recorded voice?" My own thoughts are that this has to do with the fact that we hear our own voice via a combination of air and bone conducted sound while the recorded voice would be via air conduction alone. I imagine there are some differences in the transmission characteristics of sound to the cochlea from the vocal folds via air versus the body that would also affect our perception of the sound of our voice. That said, I did a quick search and didn't find any published research (plenty of speculation similar to mine) discussing this topic and was hoping some one might point me to some relevant references. Any help is greatly appreciated. Take Care, Ben Hornsby