r/transvoice

So I've been working on my voice for a little bit over a year now. I'm m at the point where I am using it on a daily basis and friends and family have all told me you sound female.

Do you think I would be happy? Which I am but when it comes to listening to my voice after talking and recording it, I still don't hear what everyone else hears.

The majority of the time I'm good and then there's always a few days where it's like. Oh my God, I hate my voice no matter how much I use it and record and listen to it.

Like now my voice doesn't make me cringe. My male voice made me cringe. I couldn't listen to it. I can actually listen to it. It still doesn't sound feminine to me after recording.

https://voca.ro/1mINgPxHUBHU

I've been voice training for several months (for a femme voice) and making good progress. I'm also fortunate to have a supportive workplace and friends but it has been a challenge trying to use my voice around people.

Just today we had our daily stand up meeting online where I planned to try out my trained voice on a very short sentence. I practiced many times before the meeting but when it was actually time to unmute and talk, my brain made me revert back to a masc voice. I recorded both my practice and what I actually said and the practice voice sounded fine but the actual was dysphoric as hell.

When I meet friends, I'm also unable to use the voice that I spend so much time training by myself.

I've tried pretending to have a conversation, repeating real sentences that I said, recording a pretend vlog, etc and I can do my trained voice properly because I'm alone but it's so hard to translate that into talking to others.

Does anyone know how to overcome this mental block?

Hey everyone. I wanted to ask if anyone who underwent VFS had a similar experience. Here is my context:
I had surgery 1 month ago (Wendler Glottoplasty + LAVA) and started speaking 2 weeks ago. I feel like my voice hasn't changed much and I still have a low pitch. It’s true that if I push myself, I can reach higher peaks (+200 Hz), but I have to "fake it" or constantly overthink how I'm speaking; it doesn't come naturally at all.
I’ve been tracking my progress with apps and the metrics are stressing me out: my current median pitch on Genderfluent is 164 Hz and my mean is 167 Hz. I know that on paper this is close to the feminine pitch range, but I’m still hitting random lows of 85-93 Hz, which terrifies me. In the formant analysis, my F3 is stable at 2621 Hz, but my F2 is at 1646 Hz. Because of this, the app still slaps the 0.12 (Completely Masculine) label on me, which feels like a massive punch in the gut after spending €10,000.
I am doing speech therapy, and my SLP says it's normal to have such a low pitch right now because I have a lot of hoarseness from the surgery. She claims that this is actually good because the voice will end up higher once the tissue heals. Honestly, I'm having a hard time believing her and I'm terrified that something went wrong.
I know it's early to judge the results, but I wanted to ask here if anyone could share their honest opinions or experiences if they went through the same during their first month. Thanks.

I was just wondering if anyone could relate to what happened to me yesterday.

For background, I've been formally voice training for two years, and it's been over 3 years since I last spoke in my original voice (I literally can't even access it anymore if I try).

By all evidence, my voice is great. My friends say I sound completely cis, my mom (who more than once has brought up how much easier it is to treat me as her daughter now that I fully look and sound like it) says I sound completely cis, it's been over a year since I've been misgendered in any context IRL or on the phone, my personal trainer trains me as if I were a cis woman, I get hit on regularly without anything being clocked, and my pre-VFS SLP cut our sessions off after just one really because he didn't think there was any real improvement he could make.

And yet. Day to day, I am in Hell, constantly paranoid that my voice is gonna give me away, and taking any tiny thing someone else says or does as a sign that my voice betrayed me. And when my SLP played back my voice without warning yesterday, I immediately broke down into hysterics and cried for maybe 10 minutes, because I just thought it sounded so awful.

I'm getting VFS (and accompanying therapy) in July to address this, but I was wondering if anyone could relate to the current state of things.

Weird post, but recently I’ve had some friends tell me that my voice sounds really good and that it sounds “passing”. I find this hard to believe since my voice has always been deep, but I did a voice recording and I sound completely different. An audio clip I took back in 2024 sounds noticeably different, and I’ve had coworkers say things like, “I thought your voice used to be deeper.” I find this really hard to believe, and I can’t tell if they’re just being nice.

I do raise my larynx when talking, but I only realized I was doing that after watching a video a few days ago.

I guess my question is: is it possible to have a “passing voice” without any voice training?

Edit: I have noticed I’m gendered as female most of the time when on the phone so maybe it’s the audio compression that’s helping?

Just a random recording I sent to my friend. I’ve been training my voice for the past few years, used to talk really low but everyone here said it sounded forced so I stopped and used a different method that’s hard to describe but kind of like a bubble in my throat. Suddenly relistening to my audios and I feel like I sound nothing like a guy and everything like a girl. Am I right or wrong? Does my voice give me away or is it neutral?

Hi! I've been trying to lower my vocal weight and size, and trying to do ear training to figure out what's going on.

Underfull = large vocal size, but small weight. It sounds like an Elmo attempt to me. Overfull = small vocal size, but large weight. It sounds like a Hollywood nerd voice to me.

These are some of my practice recordings, and I've been trying to identify if they're under or over full.

What I think is under: https://vocaroo.com/1firkbbAUH81

What I think is over: https://vocaroo.com/1hapjs6NElIn

I cannot tell: https://vocaroo.com/1fk3HxkFaoEh

My baseline voice: https://vocaroo.com/1e2u7Js6qRUA

Thank you!

I'm finding it hard to tell if I'm passing on vowel sounds. I have a soft UK-Liverpudlian accent, which can sound a bit squeaky anyway - so idk if it's just that showing through (which I'm fine with), or if I'm using too much twang.

Any constructive thoughts are appreciated - or if you notice something else, I'm all ears.

Thanks lovelies!

https://voca.ro/1dyg9rsTOHqS

Also, here's an example of a strong Liverpool accent, to give an idea of what I mean. My natural voice definitely isn't this far into it but it gives an idea...

https://youtube.com/shorts/9Dx-DY8PBss?si=2ggs--Psj7O_0uz_

I started seriously voice training a little under 2 years ago and transitioned just a little over 6 years ago. I (trans woman) have always had a voice on the higher end of the "male range" at about 160hz before I started training and probably, conversationally, about 190hz now.

I'm still not where I want to be and I feel self-conscious about it. I work adjacent to in-person events so earlier this year and a year ago as well I traveled for work.

I printed ID badges for event attendees and interacted with probably 100+ people a day without being misgendered or looked at weird, but I strongly suspect my actual coworkers know I am trans, and I think they have misgendered me once or twice, but I am sort of unsure because people tell me I imagine being called sir when no one's said it, and if/when I am misgendered, I guess it's like cringe to say but everything feels like it's spinning and I genuinely kind of get faint. So I'm not totally in the moment and get so thrown off that I just pretend I didn't hear it. At times, I'm genuinely unsure, because it has been over a year now since the last time someone aggressively and pointedly misgendered me.

About a year ago I went on a date with someone for the first time without saying anything about being trans and everything went well except for the fact I wasn't into the guy. I worry I passed to him because of how much older than me he was (29F, 41M).

My guy friends are very supportive of my transition and I'm a little bit of a tomboy/band boy groupie, and I worry this holds me back vocally because I am not practicing my "public voice" with these regular hangs, I'm just being myself. I am confident I talk at a higher pitch in all contexts than I used to, but it feels like it's not enough.

In addition to reading the rainbow passage I will read books aloud to myself to practice spontaneous speech. I regularly get in at > 200hz when I do this. I haven't been clocked ordering food from a drive thru in some time, either, but I hate my voice so much it keeps me introverted and indoors.

Any advice? 🥺👉👈