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Flash, the old timey sounds that recall baseball from the '20s were equal parts acting and technology.
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Hey, guys and dolls.
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Trace here with the latest in vocal repartee.
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One of my favorite things to do when I'm doing a fake accent is an old timey newsreel announcer.
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Just throw on a quick flash and then use normal sentences.
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It sounds way better.
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Flash, rebels take the planet of Endor.
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So why did those guys talk like that?
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Firstly, they didn't actually talk like that.
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They announced like that.
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And they acted like that.
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Around the turn of the last century, America was still proving itself as a nation.
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At the time, parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions had a certain affectation in their accent.
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It was like a blend of British and American, but not entirely either.
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It came from certain groups of the American aristocracy and fell out of favor after World War II.
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It was also taught as a manner of speech for Hollywood actors.
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You might recognize the accent from someone like Cary Grant.
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Well, I imagine you've had wide acquaintance amongst policemen.
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I'll have to call one if you keep that up.
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But when you electronically record the human voice, things get even stranger.
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It was recently discovered that French bookseller douard-Lon Scott de Martinville was the first to record the human voice.
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In 1857, de Martinville patented the phonautograph, a simple device that recorded the vibration of sound waves onto soot-covered paper.
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That invention eventually evolved into Edison's phonograph, which could actually play the sounds back.
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But it sounded really tinny.
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This had to do with the lack of technology at the time for capturing bass.
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And as recording and reproduction improved, the sound got better, and reproduction, more and more accurate.
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Then we were presented with a new problem--we hated the way our voices sound when it was recorded, right?
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What the hell is that?
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In case, you're wondering, yes, that is what you sound like.
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And a higher pitched version of yourself is really what it is, with a lot more [ANNOYING SOUND] in there.
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But when you speak, you can hear yourself.
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So why does it sound different?
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Your bones.
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Sound vibrates everything around it, including our bones.
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So when we speak our voice, goes out of our mouth, through the air, and then into our ears.
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But it also goes through our skull and resonates into the backs of our ears, making our voice sound deeper.
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So why do we hate it so much?
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Because mirrors lie.
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They lie to you, and you lie to you.
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We spend our hives looking in the mirror perfecting how we think we look.
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But that is not you.
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That's a reverse image.
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Your left side is you right.
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Your right side is your left.
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The whole world is upside down-- well, flipped anyway.
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We spend our lives perfecting the sound of a voice that only we hear.
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So when we hear it as others do, it's similar to the one we know and love.
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But it's not quite right.
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What is your favorite accent?
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British?
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Southern?
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Jack Sparrow?
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Throw your favorites, and why, in the comments so we can talk all about it.
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Thanks for tuning in to DNews everybody.
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Find us on social media.
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We are out there.
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I'm Trace.
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See you later.