why does voice sound different when recorded

I know that when you record your voice it sounds much different then from how you hear it. I practice singing and when i dont record it , my voice to me sounds good, and i like it, but when i record myself i really feel i sound bad, but also i am recording off a crappy little 1989 tape player. But still its give you a good idea. I dont sound horrible on the recorder but i sound so different and i feel that i sound stupid and have a stupid voice but everyone says that i dont. And i feel like my singing voice sounds more like a kid then it really is, i dont know, its weird and i cant tell if i really have a bad voice or is it just because im not use to it, im kinda down now because im not sure if my dreams are over of becoming a singer/gutiarest, please give me some answers. and be honest. thanks alot

You hear your own voice very differently from everybody else around you. Not only do you hear the air vibrations your voice produces, but your ears also pick up the vibrations that run through your body(caused by your voice). This significantly alters the way you perceice your own voice compared to the people around you.
Hearing your voice recorded will sound very weird at first, not matter how good or bad the actual quality of the recording is, but it's something you have to get used to.

It's because you truly are an awful singer.

Sorry, that's my Simon Cowell impersonation.

Originally posted by SPL
You hear your own voice very differently from everybody else around you.

Apparently, you hear very little of what others hear when you speak. Most of what you're hearing is vibrations through your bones to your eardrums. Which makes sense, since your mouth is a little ways away from your ears, whereas the bones are, like, right there.

You had an idea of what you sounded like and in reality you sound different. No biggie, just take it, deal with it and move on to practicing singing with that in mind. Everybody sounds different than what they imagine and when they hear themselves on tape for the first time it's ODD. Start singing more often into a tape and you'll get used to it.

yeah - with time you get used to it and you´ll learn hear youself the way you realy sound whilst you sing. odd but true

I have the same experience .. At first Iwas totally shocked because my voice sounds horrible.. very terrifying experience. but when I use another recorder my voice sounds a lot better. maybe your recorder reli sucks...


Dont blame yourself for the bad sound blame the recorder...

haha, equipment's only as good as the user.

Yeah,it's basically the fact that your ears pick up a mix of your voice both from inside your bpdy as well as when it gets outside of your mouth,that's why since what you record is only what goes outside,and not picked from inside,it sounds different.

By the way.did you guys realise that your image of how you look is exactly the opposite of how you really look?
Here's why:
The image you have in your head of yourself is what you see when you look in the mirror,but of course this is a mirror image of yourself.How you really look like is how you look like in a photo.That's how people see you,not how you see yourself in the mirror.
You'll notice this if you have a scar on the face,or a gap in your teeth or something;when you look at a photo(especially if you haven't had one taken in a while),it tends to throw you off sort of,you just have this feeling it looks different,but you can'y quite point out what it is.
That's what it is.

It is kinda messed up that you hear yourself different than everyone else does. You sound like you do on answering machines, and video tapes. What's really messed up is that there's no way for someone else to hear your voice the way that you hear it and vice versa. I always thought that would be neat.