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  • Flash, the old timey sounds that recall baseball from the '20s were equal parts acting and technology.

  • Hey, guys and dolls.

  • Trace here with the latest in vocal repartee.

  • One of my favorite things to do when I'm doing a fake accent is an old timey newsreel announcer.

  • Just throw on a quick flash and then use normal sentences.

  • It sounds way better.

  • Flash, rebels take the planet of Endor.

  • So why did those guys talk like that?

  • Firstly, they didn't actually talk like that.

  • They announced like that.

  • And they acted like that.

  • Around the turn of the last century, America was still proving itself as a nation.

  • At the time, parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions had a certain affectation in their accent.

  • It was like a blend of British and American, but not entirely either.

  • It came from certain groups of the American aristocracy and fell out of favor after World War II.

  • It was also taught as a manner of speech for Hollywood actors.

  • You might recognize the accent from someone like Cary Grant.

  • Well, I imagine you've had wide acquaintance amongst policemen.

  • I'll have to call one if you keep that up.

  • But when you electronically record the human voice, things get even stranger.

  • It was recently discovered that French bookseller douard-Lon Scott de Martinville was the first to record the human voice.

  • In 1857, de Martinville patented the phonautograph, a simple device that recorded the vibration of sound waves onto soot-covered paper.

  • That invention eventually evolved into Edison's phonograph, which could actually play the sounds back.

  • But it sounded really tinny.

  • This had to do with the lack of technology at the time for capturing bass.

  • And as recording and reproduction improved, the sound got better, and reproduction, more and more accurate.

  • Then we were presented with a new problem--we hated the way our voices sound when it was recorded, right?

  • What the hell is that?

  • In case, you're wondering, yes, that is what you sound like.

  • And a higher pitched version of yourself is really what it is, with a lot more [ANNOYING SOUND] in there.

  • But when you speak, you can hear yourself.

  • So why does it sound different?

  • Your bones.

  • Sound vibrates everything around it, including our bones.

  • So when we speak our voice, goes out of our mouth, through the air, and then into our ears.

  • But it also goes through our skull and resonates into the backs of our ears, making our voice sound deeper.

  • So why do we hate it so much?

  • Because mirrors lie.

  • They lie to you, and you lie to you.

  • We spend our hives looking in the mirror perfecting how we think we look.

  • But that is not you.

  • That's a reverse image.

  • Your left side is you right.

  • Your right side is your left.

  • The whole world is upside down-- well, flipped anyway.

  • We spend our lives perfecting the sound of a voice that only we hear.

  • So when we hear it as others do, it's similar to the one we know and love.

  • But it's not quite right.

  • What is your favorite accent?

  • British?

  • Southern?

  • Jack Sparrow?

  • Throw your favorites, and why, in the comments so we can talk all about it.

  • Thanks for tuning in to DNews everybody.

  • Find us on social media.

  • We are out there.

  • I'm Trace.

  • See you later.

Flash, the old timey sounds that recall baseball from the '20s were equal parts acting and technology.

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