Is It Natural To Hate Your Own Voice?

[get2sammyb]

Being a wannabe dab-hand at everything I try to produce, compose, perform and mix my own songs for a solo kinda project I do.

The problem that I've nearly always had is getting a full track composed and to a stage I'm happy with (as is here) so now it's time to me to add in a vocal performance and get to the mixdown.

Now I did a demo vocal recording today (just to help me remember the vocal melody and delivery) and I just played it back and thought - "I can't sing".

I CONSTANTLY have this problem when making my own music. Thing is I'm not the best singer in the world but I can get the job done. I think the problem is that I hate the sound of my voice, raw and unprocessed. While it's all in tune and sounds (after a bit of work) I constantly just hate what I'm playing back.

I don't want to get other singers involved because it wouldn't feel like my own project anymore.

I just wondered if anyone else HATES their own voice when others may or may not like it?

[smokingbeagle]

I really don't like my 'soft', natural singing voice, which is sadly what suits most of the acoustic stuff I write. No matter how many other people tell me it sounds fine, when I hear it back my rolled 'r's and slight lisp make me want to kill myself.

It's fine for backing vocals, and if I can get larynx-threateningly gritty over a band I love it, but my natural singing voice annoys the shit out of me.

[get2sammyb]

I really don't like my 'soft', natural singing voice, which is sadly what suits most of the acoustic stuff I write. No matter how many other people tell me it sounds fine, when I hear it back my rolled 'r's and slight lisp make me want to kill myself.

It's fine for backing vocals, and if I can get larynx-threateningly gritty over a band I love it, but my natural singing voice annoys the shit out of me.

Yeah I get the same feelings - my personal aggravations are:

- Slight American twang I can't shake off.
- Sounds too British without the twang.
- Forced and shakey notes occassionally.

It all sounds forced - but when I try and back off a bit it doesn't sound energetic enough. It all sounds great when I'm writing the lyrics and singing along to the backing track - but as soon as I capture that.

The thing is - I LOVE singing too.

[stevefingers]

Yep. During rehearsals and gigs it doesn't bother me but in studio sessions-jeez, that first listen back to the first take is painful!
"Right, that'll need some preamp, delay, double tracking and reverb!"

[get2sammyb]

Yep. During rehearsals and gigs it doesn't bother me but in studio sessions-jeez, that first listen back to the first take is painful!
"Right, that'll need some preamp, delay, double tracking and reverb!"

I also find that it's more tolerable over headphones than it is over the speakers.

[TheUDE]

I just wondered if anyone else HATES their own voice when others may or may not like it?

Yes. I think it's very common, unless you're (a) incredibly naturally gifted, or (b) a total egotist.

It's akin to people first hearing their speaking voice recorded without the internal resonances that make the recorded version sound unlike how you think you sound to everyone else.

When I first started recording myself singing, some mmmbbbrlll years ago, I used the recording process as a form of voice training to finally arrive at a timbre I could live with (and, without wanting to seem up myself, a number of others really others liked).

I'd suggest forgetting post-recording processing for a while and working on trying to shape your voice at source towards how you'd like it to sound. It's a type of mimickry. If someone with a late adolescent voice as rough as mine used to sound can come up with a vocal technique that could cut the mustard, then I reckon anyone who has a fully functioning set of vocal chords and a half-decent musical ear can do it. If you can enlist outside help for vocal training, all the better.

[GheeBhow]

I'd agree with that. I'm only just happy with what I do now, but I ended up (and still do) print out lyrics and make notes about how to articulate particular words that made me cringe when I first listened to playback. The challenge then of course is making it all sound natural and real.

You could also try experimenting with mic placement etc. I find my voice pretty thin-sounding sometimes so sing a bit closer to the mic to bring out some of the bassier frequencies. Seems to work for me...

I seem to remember Stephen Duffy talking about one of his Lilac Time albums, and how he re-recorded all of the vocals cos he hated the originals so much, but on listening a few years later he couldn't tell the difference. Letting a song lie for a while has got to be a good thing. Maybe not years though...

[Foster]

I can't stand my voice, it's a disgrace.

Yet that said it's one of the things people compliment me about, they like it deep, raw, edgy and out of tune. Freaking wierdos.

[Fullofkittens]

John Lennon hated his voice, so you're in good company.

[ArtySmokes]

I have the same problem, and it's incredibly common. No one likes hearing themselves on an answerphone either.
I can sing in tune, but my voice is overly nasal. All the plug-ins in the world won't change that.
I think you have to face the fact that if you don't like your own voice, it's unlikely that many other people will love it. I was gutted when a friend of mine told me my singing was "painful", but it was better to find out years ago, so I didn't keep inflicting it upon the world!

The thing is, a vocal is the most important part of a song. A bad vocal can destroy a good melody or lyric. If you want to be successful, you HAVE to pass the reins on to someone more capable than you. If Burt Bacharach and Hal David had been precious about their songs, you wouldn't have heard of them. Bacharach can now tour and sing songs he wrote, but he owes that right to the likes of Dionne Warwick and The Carpenters for popularising the songs in the first place.
There are several singers who get away without having pleasant voices (Bob Dylan, Neil Young etc) but they tend to make up for it with raw emotion and poetic lyrics. They are in a minority. Singing is a primarily a natural talent, not something that can be learned. If you let someone else sing your lyrics, you'll be able to concentrate on other things that can be learned with experience, such as production techniques.