How long did it take before you were okay with hearing your voice?

[Fenriswolf]

I know we're all guitar players, but I'm curious about this. You can make an extra couple bucks adding a guitar track to a song, we can all do that, couple extra bucks if you can add some back up vocals. I mean, I've played with some legends where it shouldn't matter that I'm still shitposting on forums, I'm legit curious on how long it took before you were okay on hearing you own voice recorded.. Personally, I have been faking doc holliday, but I've also give of doc holliay vibes.the maine reason i'm no is idk how to do the mustache wax

 

[M3CHK1LLA]

thread reminded me of...

 

[RevDrucifer]

A long ass time, too long.

I blew my throat out with improper technique after years of trying to sound like everyone not-me, I had to stop singing entirely for 2 years, entirely, then re-approach it as if I knew nothing.

Focusing on backup/harmonies might speed that process up a bit, because you don’t have to be as worried about being the focal point, you can just focus on pitch rather than sounding exactly like your favorite singers.

 

[youngthrasher9]

For clean singing, a couple of years maybe. Harsh vocals? About double that, easily.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

I generally hate hearing myself talk. I only do it for some of my videos where I need to give some context or elaborate on certain details of the video.


I can do clean singing pretty decently but I never share it with people beyond some family members that are really into music. I never share my harsh vocals except for when I'm fucking around and come up with something funny.

 

[AwakenTheSkies]

At least 1 day

 

[Crungy]

Not that long, at least when I was in a band that did interviews and other videos that required speaking. I paid much closer attention to how I sounded after that, I found it helpful. I did some backup vocals and that never seemed weird for some reason.

 

[Neon_Knight_]

This long:

 

[AngstRiddenDreams]

I find that my biggest problem with singing is trying to hear myself properly over things and feeling like the delivery is bad because of that. You might find that you like your voice more when it’s compressed and with a bit more reverb. Tracking vocals into pre-fx helped me to feel more confident as it brought out enunciation and leveled things out. Were used to hearing mixed vox so dry and uncompressed vocals often sound off and can be discouraging.
All in all it probably took about 10 years of bedroom recording before I started to feel okay with singing, a few for screams as that’s my stronger delivery.

 

[TedEH]

In a recording, I got over my own voice pretty quickly, but singing live, and monitoring.... feels like I'm being speech jammed.

 

[nightflameauto]

I'm fifty. I've been singing on recordings and live since I was about 12 or so. I'll let you know when I get used to hearing my own voice on recordings.

 

[ArtDecade]

Seconds. I sound like Mel Torme. Silky AF.

 

[RevDrucifer]

I find that my biggest problem with singing is trying to hear myself properly over things and feeling like the delivery is bad because of that. You might find that you like your voice more when it’s compressed and with a bit more reverb. Tracking vocals into pre-fx helped me to feel more confident as it brought out enunciation and leveled things out. Were used to hearing mixed vox so dry and uncompressed vocals often sound off and can be discouraging.
All in all it probably took about 10 years of bedroom recording before I started to feel okay with singing, a few for screams as that’s my stronger delivery.

So much this.

A proper headphone mix is HUGE for delivering a good take. Not sure how much it’ll help with the overall “I hate the sound of my voice”, but getting a headphone mix where I’m not fighting the mic took me a while to figure out.

I used to tell my bass player who recorded me for years, “Crank the compression so it doesn’t matter if I’m 3 feet away or 1 foot, it’ll be the same volume” and then he’d start arguing about dynamics and how that might negatively effect my performance and he couldn’t wrap his head around it.

I have a signal chain for recording vocals that’s entirely different than mixing vocals. When I track I go into a CLA-76 then into CLA-Vocals with a fuckton of compression and some delay/reverb.

 

[STRHelvete]

I never fully get used to it and honestly I'm constantly fearing that I actually sound terrible and just no one has the heart to tell me. I hear myself and I think it sounds fine sometimes and other times I feel like I'm making a fool of myself but I always think about those people on American Idol who are horrified and shocked to have the judges tell them they sound like shit..and you always wonder "How the fuck did they get this far?"..and then I think "Oh god what if I'm them and I just don't hear it?!"


And oddly enough I did an EP where I changed my singing entirely and did some gothy crooning. I sound like spooky Rick Astley but people loved it.


I have no idea wtf is going on and I've stopped trying to figure it out. Instead I just do the best I can, I make sure it's key correct and everything else is up to interpretation. If Macy Gray, Varg, Lizzo, Ian Dury, Chris Barnes and other such folks can have careers while not being able to sing for shit then why can't I dare to be delusional too?

 

[thebeesknees22]

It's taken me a good while to find "my voice" so to speak, and I'm still working on that.

I've had to kind of force myself to work around recording in apartments and trying not to get too loud which is far from ideal for what I really want to do, but it is what it is. So I find the best compromise I can get.

I do find it kind of tough to sing quieter sometimes, and stay in key.

But I pretty much just mess around and warble stuff out until I get something that sounds kind of alright and then run with that.

I don't have a strong enough voice to solo it, but if I double things stuff starts to sound ok-ish to me. (i think that's a bit of a sin to do that all the time though depending on who you ask. Some folks are a hard "one vocal dead center" for the lead vocal.) But eh... whatever works amiright?

 

[Ordacleaphobia]

I never fully get used to it and honestly I'm constantly fearing that I actually sound terrible and just no one has the heart to tell me. I hear myself and I think it sounds fine sometimes and other times I feel like I'm making a fool of myself but I always think about those people on American Idol who are horrified and shocked to have the judges tell them they sound like shit..and you always wonder "How the fuck did they get this far?"..and then I think "Oh god what if I'm them and I just don't hear it?!"

I think this is likely something we all struggle with, regardless of role, in music.
There's a lot of people that don't want to dump on someone or tell them their sound is trash; YouTube comment sections notwithstanding. Having someone in your immediate periphery that you can trust to give straight, honest feedback and constructive criticism is so important.

As for the TQ, never. I don't really do vocals, so maybe it's just a lack of exposure thing; but I still can't believe how fundamentally different my voice sounds on a recording vs. the way it sounds in my head. The pitch and timbre is so radically different I don't think I'd ever be able to 'sing' if I wanted to; and that's kind of prevented me from pursuing it entirely. Anyone able to overcome that and actually deliver the sound they were going for automatically gets my respect.

 

[nightflameauto]

I think this is likely something we all struggle with, regardless of role, in music.
There's a lot of people that don't want to dump on someone or tell them their sound is trash; YouTube comment sections notwithstanding. Having someone in your immediate periphery that you can trust to give straight, honest feedback and constructive criticism is so important.

This is a tough one for any creative pursuit. As creators, we tend to get really wrapped up in our creations and we *need* that critical eye/ear from someone outside ourselves. But? Nobody wants to hurt anyone's feelings if they know them, so they hold back. Which is truly infuriating if you're the type that wants to improve and you can't get a direction in your own head to start looking for that improvement.

I could go off on a rant about my beta readers and my books here, but I'll just let the basic concept float. It's the same type of deal.

 

[LeftOurEyes]

This is a tough one for any creative pursuit. As creators, we tend to get really wrapped up in our creations and we *need* that critical eye/ear from someone outside ourselves. But? Nobody wants to hurt anyone's feelings if they know them, so they hold back. Which is truly infuriating if you're the type that wants to improve and you can't get a direction in your own head to start looking for that improvement.

You are right that people really do need someone to give them a critical ear, this is very important. Unfortunately I think many people who say they want feedback get their feelings hurt when friends tell them areas that could be improved regardless of how polite or careful they are about saying it. They spend a lot of time and effort on something just to be told it needs to be better. While true, it still hurts them a little. It seems this is why producers can be vital for professional bands to be great at times, the good ones push bands to be better and the bad ones are just "yes" men.

You might find that you like your voice more when it’s compressed and with a bit more reverb. Tracking vocals into pre-fx helped me to feel more confident as it brought out enunciation and leveled things out. Were used to hearing mixed vox so dry and uncompressed vocals often sound off and can be discouraging.

This is very true too. Vocals kinda sound bad dry since we are so used to listening to produced albums. A good vocal chain does wonders for your confidence and acceptance of your voice because it makes it sound more like what you think your voice should sound like.

Compressors are the most important thing and it's crazy how much of an impact/improvement they make on vocals. Most people use a preamp/eq -> 1176 compressor -> opto compressor -> Mild delay (used as a small amount of reverb but is easier to mix without all the frequency space that reverb uses) -> Saturation (during mixing). Subtle saturation is very important too especially for rock/metal stuff, it gives you a little extra "push" making your vocals a little stronger and punchier like your singing a little harder.

Layering your vocals during certain parts to emphasize them and singing harmonies to make parts bigger will help you not focus on the tone of your voice as much either just like layering several guitar tones together makes you not focus on each specific tone as much.

 

[Ordacleaphobia]

You are right that people really do need someone to give them a critical ear, this is very important. Unfortunately I think many people who say they want feedback get their feelings hurt when friends tell them areas that could be improved regardless of how polite or careful they are about saying it. They spend a lot of time and effort on something just to be told it needs to be better. While true, it still hurts them a little. It seems this is why producers can be vital for professional bands to be great at times, the good ones push bands to be better and the bad ones are just "yes" men.

I think this just boils down to whether or not you can be honest with yourself.
The most invested I ever was doing music was when I had a roommate who was also doing music because we could hurl stuff at each other knowing that the other wouldn't be afraid to say it was bad and I think you can do better.

But if you deep down just want some degree of affirmation and you show someone like that something that's subpar, you aren't doing yourself any favors and I think there's probably a surprisingly steep number of people that have trouble identifying that.

 

[Grindspine]

I am just barely okay with hearing my recorded guitar playing. I hate hearing my own voice. I am trying to get over it. Any type of hardcore punk, yelling, death metal growling, etc. sounds comical unless you really commit to it. I have not been quite able to get to that level yet.