Which Voice Is Yours?

“Your spirit and my voice
in one combined.
The phantom of the opera is there
inside my mind” _The Phantom of the Opera

The Buddhist concept of anatta, or no-self, has emerged again. No, not the much-talked-about Matrix. Not Neo and his nemesis, Smith.

Voice Changer Software calls for itself the question, “Why in the world does a thing like this come into being?”

But let me first take you through more familiar things. Like “the Phantom of the Opera”.

Or if you have been to the famous Thai Alcazar Tiffany show, it’s the double-faced singer.

It’s interesting how Christine keeps rejecting the fact that she and the phantom are one.

“Those who have seen your face
draw back in fear.
I am the mask you wear…”

While the phantom is blatantly delighted in the co-existence.

“Sing once again with me our strange duet.
My power over you grows stronger yet.”

In the Alcazar show, you see transgender girls perform world’s different masterpieces. But the one that they uniquely own is the double-faced singer, who is a man when turned to the left and a woman when turned to the right. And he/she plays both roles and sings both male and female voices.

Do I really own anything? Is there something that I can say, “Mine”, something that never changes? Under any circumstances.

My look changes. That’s why I take photos. And I only post my best ones on my net profile.

Then I soon realized that my voice changes too. Within a daytime. I tend to sound harsh and dry in the morning and soft and smooth in the evening. And I sometimes sound like a complete stranger.

Now let’s say I’m doing a voiced blog. Which voice will represent me?

So when I came upon Voice Changer Software, I liked it right away. Forget all the fancy things about switching to the opposite sex’s voice or shaving 40 years off your voice’s age. They are cool but they are not what I truly need.

I want a voice that represents me best. And fortunately the software does allow me to create my own “nickvoice” based on my real voice, with a bit of modification thanks to the equalizers and the effects. I call it “The One and Only Jimmy”.

So now, I can do my presentation voice-overs, blogs, card greetings… with this unchanged voice. I am always the upbeat, happy me that I created.

And I’d like to rename the software “Voice Constant”. And I can forget the annoying Buddhist concept of anatta, which says that I’m void of self.

Until I listened to “The Phantom of the Opera”. The plot fascinated me so much that I immediately created myself another ME that is another nickvoice called “Phantom Jimmy”.

So I now have two ME’S to play with. And I can’t say which one is truly ME.

Maybe the Phantom.

Jimmy Tiep is a freelance journalist and copywriter. He’s contactable at media@audio4fun.com.