Distortion Runze Liu

I was shocked by the sound of my own voice.

Having recorded myself, I excitedly pressed play, expecting to validate an acoustic theory I had just read about in physics textbook. As sound travels faster through bone than air, I expected a difference, and I was ready to identify any tiny change.

Sound flew from the recorder. Was this how others heard my voice? The sound was different: higher, tinnier, childish, and foreign.

Stumped and panicked, I felt like a magician had stolen my real voice, and inserted someone else’s. If voice was one example of my self-perception, what about appearance? Or speech? Or endeavors? Was the image in others’ eyes as distinctively different as the sound of my voice in others’ ears?

"I didn’t think you’d like electronic music,” said one of my roommates, as she looked through my playlists. I tried to understand her surprise. Due to my ten years of training in classical piano, I didn’t seem like someone who would enjoy this “unpalatable” music genre. Nevertheless, I listen to dubstep and trap in my spare time. To me, electronic music, with its timbral complexity, embodies the sound of the future and infinite variations. Through synthesis and tweaks, the combination of timbres and beats perfectly...