I am Shocked at how distorted i sound on iMovie....

when im recording video of myself on iMovie...my voice is a bit distorted..cant quite place it but i sound alot deeper, slower, just weird.

for reference ive heard how i sound on various mediums from film to tv to phone voicemail and i dont sound anyhting like how i sound on the imovie

could it be something to do with imovie? or my audio input?

r u sure you sound distorted? It could be an environmental thing, is there other noise in the room? And are you playing any music thru the speakers. Because I'm pretty sure the built in mic is actually just a reflexive reading from the speakers. I don't think it's a real mic. I'm not sure, I always use digital video cameras with iMovie. I've never really experience that kind of issue. And i've done weeks of video editing on my MBP

there are a few things to remember when recording anything. Make sure you're not too close to the mic, as sounds can very easily clip then (clipping occurs when the sound is too loud for the mic settings - more advanced mics allow you to control level input) I'm sure we've all seen dodgy flash animations where the recorded voices clip and distort with every 't', 's' and scream recorded. Just make sure you sit back enough. I've used skype just fine with my built-in macbook mic.

If you're just recording audio, you're better off using a sound app (Audacity is a good example, but some people have found it to be glitchy - I haven't in around a year of use), as you get active feedback of the levels that are being received. Furthermore, you can edit the sound. Assuming the levels are acceptable, you can use an effect such as normalise to bring sound levels up to the optimum level.

Ice Cream Man has the right idea - use a digital video camera for video - and if you want quality audio, you should invest in a decent mic and something like a DAT recorder (and some DAT casettes) to store and transfer your audio.