Since I have reluctantly joined the podcast-listening majority in the past few months, I’ve discovered all of the thins you’ve all probably known for years. In the winter I discovered that I had never listened to one presenter’s natural voice, so it sounded weird to me when I played a video of him speaking as he normally does. Not because it was weird. Just to me, because I play podcasts faster than the default speed.
And for many other folks I’ve never heard, I’ve felt free to take liberties with adjusting their speech rate and never noticed anything in particular. (though doesn’t it feel a little weird I used the possessive to describe the speech rate of a podcast recording? I’m adjusting your speech rate Roman, do you feel it?)
I just crossed my own Uncanny Valley again and creeped myself out, this time for a much more normal reason. I was listening to Cathy Pearl on the 2343 Conversations podcast, and it creeped me out because she was talking way too fast.
Not because she does. I just used the default setting of my podcast app and hit play. It starts off with an intro from the host Simone Salis. Sounds fine. Whatever. But when the actual interview with Cathy starts, it’s totally upsetting to me.
But it’s obvious why.
I have made the acquaintance of Cathy Pearl, who you’ll all know as the author of Voice User Interface Design who also speaks at conferences or on podcasts. As recently as a couple of weeks ago she asked a question in a Women In Voice call where people were demoing their products. Her voice is actually familiar to me.
Using her book in my class, and generally having pointed my students to various events and resources for, with, and by VUI designers, it occurs to me that stuff I haven’t gotten around to reading or listening to I should check out in cast they ask me about it. Hence listening to this podcast.
But I know what she sounds like. She doesn’t sound 2x! More like 1x. Occasionally 1.05-1.10x, and for emphasis maybe 0.9-0.95x, but she’s usually right at her normal speech rate, so listening to this podcast sounded very strange indeed!