Why does my voice sound different on recordings?

Sound from your vocal cords reaches your inner ears by two routes: through the air around you and by bone conduction through your skull. Bone conduction boosts lower frequencies, so the voice you hear in your head seems richer and deeper. A microphone only picks up the air-conducted sound, which is exactly how other people hear you. The mismatch is so common that psychologists call the discomfort voice confrontation, a term used in research since the 1960s. Studies show that people often rate their own recorded voice as more attractive when they do not realise it is theirs.