I was watching a movie on a computer that had speakers on top of the desk, and a sub-woofer. It sounded awesome using both sets of speakers. Then someone had to borrow the sub-woofer, and the audio (while still plenty listenable) was not as good. This is similar to how we listen to our selves. We hear ourselves through the air (using our ears) but our bones vibrate and add a little more to the sound (talk and touch the corner of your jaw and you will feel the vibrations). Consequently, when you hear yourself without this bone boosting quality, you hate your voice. As someone who has helped hundreds of people launch a podcast I can tell you that %99.9 hate the sound of their own voice. My wife (who I keep pulling into podcasts) HATES the sound of her voice (which is why she often pulls out of podcasts).
Here is a video from the Today show.
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If the professional voice over person hates their voice – IT IS NORMAL – to hate your own voice. You WILL get used to it.
Here is a more descriptive explanation of what happens when you talk from Dr. William Cullinan, dean of the College of Health Sciences and director of the Integrative Neuroscience Research Center
The physical act of producing speech, which involves contraction of the muscles of the larynx (and others), creates a vibration that is translated through the neck to the skull where the entire auditory transduction apparatus is. This delivers a second (internal) stimulus to the apparatus. The combination of the two stimuli is what you perceive as the sound of your own voice. But you are the only person who hears it this way because you are the only one who can produce both stimuli. (source)
When podcasting first started, one of the cool things about it is we DIDN'T sound like “Radio guys” with giant pipes that almost blow our speakers. You are you. Embrace you and the sounds of your own voice. After all, nobody else sounds like you.
