I might be a little harsh on this one, but I blame it on reality TV, youtube, and Simon Cowell.
Why most people don’t sound good when their voice is recorded: because you don’t have a great sounding voice. Stick with me here:
It’s NOT necessarily because you can’t sing, I’m talking about the voice you’re born with. Sorry to break it to you, but most people are not born with a great singing voice. I’m one of them.
My voice sucks. I can have good vocal tone, steady and controlled, can carry the notes I need, I can give some emotion when recording vocals, and coach vocalists through studio sessions with the best of them… but my INSTRUMENT – my *voice* just isn’t good. It’s DNA. Your voice can be trained to an extent, but that’s only the technique of singing – you can’t make diamonds out of sandstone.
You have to physically have the right parts to have a great voice… like a good tonewood for an acoustic guitar. Being able to sing doesn’t mean you have a great voice, which is why a lot of people get shocked when they hear their voice recorded for the first time. It is what it is, and it’s a hard lesson for a lot of people who think they are “amazing signers” to learn. Just watch American Idol.
But WHY do you not sound good when recorded in the studio, when you’ll swear up and down that you sound good “in real life”? Perspective.
When you sing, just walking around the house or in your car, you are hearing your voice as you’ve always heard your voice from the first time your cried b/c you wanted to eat. That internal / external combination of sound for you voice is, depending on your age, the number one most familiar sound to you. As such is sounds good.
… but once you record your voice, whether on a home computer or in a recording studio (the point is it has to be better quality than an 8 bit voicemail message), and you hear your voice ONLY externally and NOT with all the other internal vibrations and perspective happening… most people don’t like the sound of their voice.
It’s exactly the same as seeing yourself in a reverse mirror... the way everyone else in the world sees you EXCEPT you… all of the sudden all of your features look basically whacked b/c you’ve been staring at a reverse image of yourself for your entire life. Once you see yourself the way everyone else sees you (just like hearing yourself the way everyone else hears you), then it all seems just wrong, bad, or not as good as you THINK you actually look or sound.
Why do you think Apple included a “reverse” function in its iPhoto application? So people could still see themselves as they do in the mirror – backwards – the only way 90% of people in the world can bare to see themselves.
Sort of messed up when you give it some thought.
BUT, thanks to (in the beginning) myspace, then America’s Got Tallent and American Idol, and X-Factor, and a thousand other “Hey! you should be famous!!!!” TV shows, then youtube and ustream, then facebook… everyone thinks they are just as tallented in a create artform as the best and most blessed with talent people in the world. Particularly Americans feel they are ENTITLED to be famous. The overwhelming self-esteem of the talentless can be amazing.
So sorry to break it to you, but if you’re searching for answers to “why I don’t sound good when recorded” its probably because in reality you don’t sound as good as you THINK you sound. It’s not an insult. I was born with a TERRIBLE voice, and it pisses me off b/c I’d love to be able to sing in public. (But at least I know I can’t sing… acceptance is the first step, my friend).
Published: by | Updated: 09-10-2012 09:01:49
