Posted 06.25.2009 at 12:15 pm
5 Comments
Tone Deaf Your voice makes
vibrations that only you can hear
iStock
It sounds different because it is different. "When you speak, the vocal folds in your throat vibrate, which causes your skin, skull and oral cavities to also vibrate, and we perceive this as sound," explains Ben Hornsby, a professor of audiology at Vanderbilt University. The vibrations mix with the sound waves traveling from your mouth to your eardrum, giving your voice a quality — generally a deeper, more dignified sound — that no one else hears.
Related Articles
 | Pre-Edison Sound Recording Played Back |
 | The Sound of Silence... Almost |
| Voice Recognition for Mobile Phones |
Tags
Science, Amber Sasse, fyi, hearing, july 2009, sound of your voice, voice recordingsThrough a loudspeaker or recording device, you pick up sound only through air conduction. "The sound we're used to hearing has a lower frequency from the bone vibrations," Hornsby says. "We like that because it sounds rich and full." Many people cringe at the playback sound because our brain struggles to accept that this foreign voice is our own.
Try to stump us. Send your questions to fyi@popsci.com.
Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!
Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!
5 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Download Our iPhone App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
Become a Fan On Facebook
Share links with friends, comment on stories and more
December 2009: Best of What's New
In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.
Check out the best of what's new here.
Popular Science Photo Pool
Popular on Popsci
Most Viewed
Science
- China's Weather Manipulation Brings Crippling Snowstorm to Beijing
- Mesmerizing, Isn't It?
- Synthetic Molecules Trick Body Into Improved Immune Response to HIV, Cancer
- Old Soviet Warheads Fuel America's Nuclear Power Industry
- Vatican Ponders the Existence Of Alien Life
- Implantable Device Allows Mastectomy Patients to Regrow Own Breasts
- IEA Whistleblower Claims Agency Has Downplayed Looming Oil Shortage
- Modified Algae Produce Clean, Easy Hydrogen
- Moon-Bombing Mission Finds Significant Amount of Water in Lunar Soil
- Will Drilling Into a Volcano Trigger an Eruption That Destroys Naples?
Most Commented
Science
- This Week in the Future, November 6-13, 2009
- This Week in the Future, November 16-20, 2009
- China's Weather Manipulation Brings Crippling Snowstorm to Beijing
- So Much For "Hopenhagen"
- Modified Algae Produce Clean, Easy Hydrogen
- Vatican Ponders the Existence Of Alien Life
- British Academy To Look Into Ethics of Human-Animal Genetic Hybrids
- IEA Whistleblower Claims Agency Has Downplayed Looming Oil Shortage
- Moon-Bombing Mission Finds Significant Amount of Water in Lunar Soil
- Mesmerizing, Isn't It?
Most Emailed
Science
- Fermi Telescope Detects Antimatter in Lightning Storms
- New Reactor Uses Sunlight to Turn Water and Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel
- Modified Algae Produce Clean, Easy Hydrogen
- IEA Whistleblower Claims Agency Has Downplayed Looming Oil Shortage
- Yikes: Peruvian Jungle Gang Arrested for Selling Fat of Its Murder Victims
- This Week in the Future, November 16-20, 2009
- Thousands of Worms Headed to International Space Station For Muscle Tests
- New Website Tracks $21 Billion in Stimulus Dollars for Science
- Mesmerizing, Isn't It?
- Liquid Cooling Bags For Data Centers Could Trim Cost and Carbon By 90 Percent
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
well i just want to say the girl in the picture is flipping hot!!
OMgosh dude that girl is SO hot!
RT
www.complete-privacy.tk
I want to see her oral that mic.
Wow. Keep it in your pants, slimeballs.
So my question is, and always has been, which is the voice other people hear? From this article it sounds like the voice we hear from a recording is the real voice others hear. But I'm pretty sure that's not what most readers want to hear, including myself!
Amazing maybe I am a bit less primal than you all but I fail to see what her looks have to do with the story.
Now on to the story. Having been a singer for 30 years I understand why your voice sounds different and in the beginning I was amazed at the differences and apparently the differences are oddly enough are unique for each person. In my case my voice sounds deeper on tape a surprising fact since to myself when I speak my voice sounds quite a bit higher. Makes you more appreciateive as a singer to know that the reason you made it is that millions of people like the sound of a voice you will never hear naturally.