Why does your voice sound different in recordings?

When you speak, you hear your voice through two paths: air conduction, where sound waves travel through the air to your ears, and bone conduction, where vibrations travel through your skull to your inner ear^[1][4]. Because bone conduction amplifies lower frequencies, your voice sounds richer and deeper to you than it actually is^[1][6].

Recordings only capture the air conduction component, which is why they sound higher-pitched and unfamiliar^[1][4]. Essentially, that recording is exactly how everyone else hears you all the time^[1]. Did you know that some headphones use bone conduction to let you listen to music while keeping your ears open to the world?