Yes, that is right. If you hear them on the recording - that is indeed what you sound like. You can improve vastly by listening to yourself and recording again and again. Try using a good minidisk (no distortion) to practice your material. When you listen to yourself, you will naturally focus on all the bad things, not the good things at first. The shock of hearing yourself takes a while to wear off, but eventually you get used to your overall sound and can better control your voice to do what you want. Breath control always seems to be key, but also controling the area of resonance and your enunciation can vastly change the way you sound.

Here is another thing to think about. In a recording, you want to sound personal - like you are right there with the person - sitting in the living room. This quiet and personal singing style is often not the usual for those people that regularly sing to an audience in a loud a pub or on a stage. So when you record yourself that might be one reason it sounds a bit off to you. We all expect ourselved to sound like a cd, not like our regular selves sitting in the living room.

Take comfort in the fact that live performances have visuals - your presence on stage, your connection with the song, your comfort level, so even if the vocal isn't perfect - it may seem wonderful to your audience.

I hope these thoughts are helpful, Claire