Human’s climb up the evolutionary lateral ladder may have given us the twinkling lights of the heavens, but we still don't want people to see us until we are ready for us to be seen. Our true and authentic face, hair, or body has probably only been witnessed by a select number of people with which we have an intimate relationship. For everyone else; we wear pants.

Almost everyone in every culture around the world contributes at least some portion of their income to industries with the express purpose of repressing our authentic self to the world. Grooming and clothing are basic necessities of life. Almost everyone on the planet is willing to spend money to make sure that we look better than our authentic selves for almost every interaction with the outside world. 

So why don’t we make the same decisions when it comes to our voice?

While we can’t change our physiology to make drastic changes to our voice, we certainly can enhance our voice to make it more publicly pleasing. Just like we have the option to comb our hair instead of living with bed-head, we can do the equivalent with our voice and exercise some control of how it is presented to the world.

The voice I hear in my headphones as I record Podcast Pontifications is different than the voice you hear from your earbuds when you listen to my episodes. Specifically, my voice has gone through six filters -- the same six filters, using the exact same settings -- before you hear it. 

I use presets in my own audio recording the same way I use presets in my grooming routine. I mostly brush my hair the same way every day. My eyebrows get bushy in the same spot (yeah, I pluck my eyebrows), and the same spots on my face need the same application of foundation to make me less splotchy. Oh, and I almost always wear pants. And I always wear pants the exact same way. 

But thanks to this global pandemic, our in-person interactions are starting to resemble broadcast radio/TV a lot more. Our meetings -- for business or for pleasure -- are on Zoom. And while we spend plenty of resources making sure we and our environment look great on camera, we’re leaving our voice to fend for itself.

I wouldn’t show up on camera without running a comb (or at least my fingers) through my hair, putting on a shirt (hey, it’s hot in AZ), turning on my ring light, and tuning my webcam settings, I probably shouldn’t be sending out a “clean” signal of my voice. 

My prediction: We’ll see a shift toward pre-processing of our authentic voices as we try to better control how our authentic voices sound when leaving our environment.

If I want to make sure my authentic voice is the authentic voice I want to be out in the world, I’m going to have to make a hardware investment.  And that’ll probably change how I produce podcasts from now on. Because I want to be the one who controls my authentic voice before it’s released to the wild. Do you?

-----

Read the full article and share with a friend: https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/correcting-your-authentic-podcasting-voice

Podcast Pontifications is published by Evo Terra four times a week and is designed to make podcasting better, not just easier.

Follow Evo on Twitter for more podcasting insights as they come.

And if you need a professional in your podcasting corner, please visit SimplerMedia.pro to see how Simpler Media Productions can help you reach your business objectives with podcasting.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.