Yourself on tape

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I hate the sound of my voice on tape. I sound much younger than my age.

I wish I sounded "much younger" than my age. I sound a little younger.

I don't really like watching myself on tape. I'm self-conscious.

I don't like watching myself on tape, either. I think I look really dumb.

I hate my voice. But then growing up being told how loud or monotone it is, only made me hate it more.

I was put on tape once and screamed like a girl when it was ripped off me.

I thought my voice sounded a bit dull, but I shared a youtube video that my brother made in the past and I am on a small bit of it, and they think I sould great. It cheered me up as I didn't think I sounded that great. So I know I sound ok.
But on cassette tapes in the past, I sound like I am talking for a horror movie... Kinda almost monotone and boring. I think it is why I was trying to sound enthusiastic when my brother filmed me, but it took a few attempts as in trying to sound enthusiastic, I kept laughing at myself! Haha!

My twin and I recorded ourselves as kids and while her voice sounded normal and she was perfectly fine with it, mine sounded babyish. I hated it.

When I was at uni I recorded an interview with myself and another two people. I had to transcribe the interview so I couldn't not listen to my voice. Not only did I sound like a kid, but I sounded ultra Australian as well. I had thought my accent wasn't that strong but it is.

When I used to have a landline phone, I'd get calls from strangers every now and then and they'd ask for my mum.

I'd prefer a Welsh accent, heheh!

With high pitch, it sounded like a child. It's no wonder why some asked me on the phone where my parents are.

With low pitch, it sort of do sounded about my current age if not a bit younger than that. It seems so similar to my mom's and my sister's, with varying certain quality to it...

Both still stood out.

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When I first heard myself on tape, I definitely noticed something weird with my voice. My voice sounded like bad voice acting. Even if I was genuinely excited or whatever, I sounded fake and emotionless. It was deeper than I expected. The rhythm of my words was also … somewhat off. But I assumed that’s just because your voice sounds different to yourself. I thought that everyone had this experience with their own voice. Nobody complained about it, so I didn’t let it bother me either.

It wasn't until after I met a confirmed autistic who spoke similarly and read about monotone voice did I realise it's not all in my head. But I never became self conscious or anything.

My voice sounds different on tape to how I think I speak. Isn't that strange? But if I sing, I am great at getting the right key or tone etc. Strange isn't it!

There are tons of websites that explain the technical reasons why your own voice sounds different on tape, but I've not found any explanation of why it seems to sound so much worse. My tentative theory is that we tend to compare our results with those of professional TV and radio personalities who have been selected for "good" delivery. That's the recorded spoken word material we're most familiar with, we don't hear others on tape very often. But I'm not happy with that explanation. I have a feeling that a lot of people wouldn't find the sound of other ordinary people on tape anything like as horrible as their own, though I can't do the experiment. I wonder if feelings of inferiority come into it, or whether there are yet more explanations.