Day 8 · Diary metaphor
“It’s like going from listening to a tweeter to listening to a subwoofer.”
That was the closest comparison I could find. Quiet rooms and headsets made the bass especially hard to ignore. It’s a description of how it felt to me, rather than a measurement of the sound.
A recording removes part of the signal you normally hear
When you speak, sound reaches your ears through the air and through vibration conducted by the skull and body. Playback is mainly air-conducted. Research shows bone conduction contributes to recognising our own voice, which helps explain why recordings can sound unfamiliar.
Supported
Live and recorded self-voice are not acoustically identical
Bone-conducted information changes how the speaker receives and identifies their own voice.
Not established here
Why a new register feels alien for a particular person
Habit, expectation, anxiety, identity and bodily sensation may all matter. The diary cannot establish their relative weight or a universal adaptation timeline.
27 March 2024 · Headset recording
The mismatch persisted even as public use began
Through Discord and a headset, it felt as though the highs and mids had disappeared and someone had turned up the bass. Then I’d listen to the recording and hear an ordinary voice. By then, I had started using it around other people while that mismatch was still there.
Research: Bone conduction and self–other voice discrimination · Auditory traits of one’s own voice