How can I record my singing voice the way I hear it?

Question

When I hear myself sing, which I only do in my car to and from work everyday now just to practice (which is about 2 hours total), I actually like the way my voice sounds. It is at least tolerable.

My workplace also sells a huge number of products, one of which is earplugs. So again while singing in my car, but with earplugs this time, I still like the way my voice sounds regardless of if I have one or two earplugs in. Not quite as much as without the earplugs but I still like it.

I started this practicing after I just tried winging it after buying a Sterling Audio ST51 Large Diaphragm FET Condenser Microphone and it sounded terrible. Thinking back I was probably singing out of my pitch range which made it difficult to keep the notes I was trying for, but it still sounded terrible even when I sang the same part but an octave or two lower just for an attempt at harmony.

It embarrassed me to the point where I went and bought Melodyne from a friend. I haven't had a chance to use this with my DAW yet due to his version being old and incompatible with it.

Anyways, after doing a decent amount of research and also having a couple lessons on recording and mastering vocals in this free class I attend, I realized that I hadn't done anything terribly wrong when I tried recording my voice. I added a compressor and EQ'd it to raise the bass and high frequencies since it sounded seriously lacking in bass tones. I was an appropriate distance away from the mic. Since the room I'm in has a TERRIBLE echo, I recorded myself in between a little fort I made out of my comforter. I did this because I used to be in a band way back in high school and we recorded in a studio once and the guy liked us so was explaining a lot of what he was doing since we didn't technically pay him to mix or master our recordings but he was a good guy ^_^.

Anyways even after all of this, I still sounded like I was 13 in that stage where my voice is cracking. It wasn't literally cracking, but the high parts sounded atrocious.

What gives? For the tl;dr type, how do I get that sound from my head that I like? I thought wearing earplugs was supposed to make you hear your voice more as it actually is.

I remember reading somewhere about how your not used to hearing how your voice actually sounds and something with how your brain automatically blocks the common wavelengths in your voice to improve hearing other things or something? Please any help would be appreciated. I know my voice is not good or anything special but I honestly don't think my voice is that bad

Answer 1

As sound waves travel through bone as well as air, of course you will sound different to a recording. When you play back a recording you just won't get any of those sounds transmitted through your skull.

You will be able to approximate the sound by using an equaliser and boosting our cutting frequency ranges - trial and error is your best bet here, as no-one else will know how you sound to yourself.

Answer 2

None of us hear our voices as they are. As Dr. mayhem pointed, you hear your voice through bones (and skull is a pretty complicated system with lots of small resonating cavities) and through the air. Have in mind that your ears are behind your mouth so the air part that you hear is mostly reflected around. All that is then filtered by the brain (which is, if I remember right but don't take my word for it) a psychological process learned in the early childhood to somewhat level your voice and other people's voices.

Now, singing in the car and with earplugs actually made that difference even bigger. Not only that you lowered the ratio of "air" voice, you changed the resonance structure of your skull. And car is a tight and upholstered space so you probably muted the sound quite a bit. Theoretically, I find it strange that you find your voice good in that environment.

Anyway, the point is not to make it sound like it is in your head but to sound good. Just as you would do with any other voice. So, EQ's and compressor are your friends. Though part is that you are working with your own voice and, if it's any consolidation, about 98% of sound engineers I met hate doing that.

But before you start playing with EQ's, have a nice recording in the first place. Experiment with different rooms, probably with something that will pump lower frequencies (if it sounds good in the car) and with low reverberation. But don't be shy to try spaces with more reverberation, there is a reason so many people sing in the bathrooms with all those sound-reflecting tiles around them. :)

And btw, the room you mentioned probably didn't have any echo (it takes 17.5 meters to the wall to have echo) but reverberation. First one is when you can actually distinguish original from the reflected sound. later is when they mix together.

Answer 3

You basically need a Binaural microphone. I haven't used one myself, but the way these work is by capturing sound at the same place you hear sound; within your ears, one mic in each ear.

The shape of your head and ears shapes the sound you hear, so you'll need to replicate that shape (or just use your own head/ears) to capture "what you hear", in addition to capturing the room's acoustics (to actually record how you sound in your car, you'd need to be in your car). These recordings are often done with a dummy head, but the dummy head versions are very expensive.