Suggestion: actual singer to sing as Dandelion

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Suggestion: actual singer to sing as Dandelion

I'm not sure that this wasn't already discussed, but in any case I wanted to make a dedicated thread for this (and I haven't seen one before; if I'm wrong, please merge).

TL_DR: Suggestion to REDs: find an actual singer to perform a song as Dandelion.

Longer thoughts:

In The Witcher we have such an awesome character as Dandelion, who is renowned throughout the Northern Kingdoms for his singing. The last two games included some attempts on showing him sing, but apparently just the regular Dandelion voice actor tried to do the singing, which resulted in somewhat lacking performances:

The Witcher 1:
(well, the singing in this one is not that bad, but the song is certainly not a hit).

The Witcher 2:
(strictly speaking, here it's a poem, but still).

So my suggestion would be to finally give some proof of Dandelion's talents in having him performing some song in a nice way, finding an actual singer for this. If the song ends up being good, this can serve well in promoting the game on Youtube.

Of course, there is a problem: where can the REDs find a good singer? Well, I think that since The Witcher is quite popular now, many people would like to take the part.
There is already a number of fan-made witcher songs, some of which are of quite high level, for instance the ones by @miracleofsound (yes, he composes songs after many games, but he is a Witcher fan, after all he even showed up on these forums ;) ).
Here are @miracleofsound 's Witcher songs, in case somebody hasn't heard them:

Miracle Of Sound - Wake The White Wolf:
(there is also a metal version of this).

Miracle Of Sound - Silver & Steel:

Miracle Of Sound - Ploughing a Troll:

I think he would fit quite well for Dandelion, and he composes extremely nice songs. Having him performing for The Witcher 3 would be a win-win situation: he gets publicity for taking part in TW3, the Witcher franchise finally gets a properly singing Dandelion ;)


There are, however, two problems with this suggestion. The first one is that the game is now very late in development, which means that something like this can be added into it only if there is a suitable place and moment in the game already, like having some fair with Dandelion present, or some reception at some lord's castle with him being present, and so on. If there is no such situation already included in the game, then there is practically no chance of adding this properly. Even if there is some suitable place and moment it might still be to late to make all the animations and whatnot.
The second problem is even bigger: the localization. If a Dandelion's song gets included in the game, it needs to be localized into all the languages for which there will be voiceovers, which is qite a bit of trouble, since doing it properly would imply trying to find people to sing this song in all these languages.

So, what do you think?
 
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I think it is a good Idea, but like you said, might be very dificult depending of the development stage of the game. However, are you saing for him to dub Dandelion or only dub him at the songs? Because I like his voice, and changing the voice actor in the last game isn't an idea that atract's me that much =P. But it would be nice to have see Dandelion's singing/ songs in the last game.
Btw: I really like that part where he sings in TW1, altought his performance is not very good, to song is quite funny, and the fact that his performance is bad kinda adds to the charm of the song =P

P.S.: Aoooooooooooooooo, AooooooooooOOOOO, AooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOooooooooooooOOOOOO!!
 
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I think it is a good Idea, but like you said, might be very dificult depending of the development stage of the game. However, are you saing for him to dub Dandelion or only dub him at the songs? Because I like his voice, and changing the voice actor in the last game isn't an idea that atract's me that much =P. But it would be nice to have see Dandelion's singing/ songs in the last game.

I like the current Dandelion actor too, it would be sad if they change him. I certainly meant only replacing him for the songs.

Btw: I really like that part where he sings in TW1, altought his performance is not very good, to song is quite funny, and the fact that his performance is bad kinda adds to the charm of the song =P

P.S.: Aoooooooooooooooo, AooooooooooOOOOO, AooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOooooooooooooOOOOOO!!

Yeah, I agree that it's funny (especially after all this pathos about how good Dandy is at singing), but having a good song in TW3 for a change would be great.
 
Yes, we talked about this topic some time ago.
So, if devs read the forum they must know it already, about fan's desire for Dandellion to actually sing in game.

What will we get?
No idea.
It is technically complicated, bad localization can make the song horrible, but at least they have to try. They had to see the tv series. It was bad in many parts, but one thing was perfect:

 
It would be nice to have someone who can sing properly, not that the last 2 Dandelion VA's were terrible, they just weren't anything flash.

If they keep the VA from TW2, even though I like the guy who does those videos, I don't think his voice would really fit, it'd be really weird to have Dandelion sing and it's obviously a completely different person.
That all said, with less than 5 months less, I would assume most, if not all, the VA's are locked in by now and tons of dialogue is probably already being or soon to be recorded. So whatever choice of VA and whether Dandelion actually ever sings in the game, we probably can't really do much now but wait and see.
 
Think they should hire Paul Robeson.

If only they could, what a dude...

[video=youtube;I8jlCedM-cE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8jlCedM-cE[/video]


Though i'd suggest John McCormack as a more appropriate voice...

[video=youtube;S-fbYYIfqRw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-fbYYIfqRw[/video]

In general though the idea of a professional singer has been forwarded before, and it is sound. ;)
 
In russian localization his song was terrible. Fully approves this suggestion.

Если локализаторы напортачат и в этот раз, то всегда можно включить польскую или англискую озвучку.
 
It is technically complicated, bad localization can make the song horrible..

You're right of course. But I'd debate whether localisation is absolutely necessary too, especially if serving the song in all languages was a deal breaker for having at least one good song from Dandelion. Depending on what the devs want it to achieve, i'd say make it in English for everyone, or in a completely different language like the old Troubadour Occitan, or a Witcherworld language. I recall when we discussed this before wondering if it'd be possible for a song appropriate for Dandelion ingame, to also be a contender for some contemporary downloads today - it might only be a matter of time before games release with a theme song in the charts (like many films), and on the face of it seems like it might make a reasonable bit of launch PR (first to do something, even if its just a crossover, always seems to get the attention of the media these days = free column inches).

Can't help but think of Sting:

 
...Depending on what the devs want it to achieve, i'd say make it in English for everyone, or in a completely different language like the old Troubadour Occitan, or a Witcherworld language. I recall when we discussed this before wondering if it'd be possible for a song appropriate for Dandelion ingame, to also be a contender for some contemporary downloads today - it might only be a matter of time before games release with a theme song in the charts (like many films), and on the face of it seems like it might make a reasonable bit of launch PR (first to do something, even if its just a crossover, always seems to get the attention of the media these days = free column inches).

Great idea, it's just splendid.
We are waiting for a game of movie-like quality of story and picture, having original soundtrack is natural. Some beautiful song in elven language will fit well with the gameworld.
Can we have some feedback from the Red team, please?
Will we have some great songs?
Or is it just speculations?
 
The Skyrim tavern song was pretty good… I like it less in English but in French it’s pretty cool:

 
We are waiting for a game of movie-like quality of story and picture, having original soundtrack is natural.

Damn... when you put it like that it becomes self evident ;)

Fingers crossed they already plan Dandelions "closure" to include a command performance, he deserves it :)

So I listened to more of Stings "Songs from the Labyrinth" album of John Dowlands 16th century madrigals, and once over the initial unfamiliar phrasing it really grows on you... it certainly transports you back a few centuries, and can be quite dark:

Sting sings this ancient song accompanied by a lute.
"In Darkness Let Me Dwell" is discussed before it is sung and the song is described as "possibly the most perfect song ever written in the English language".
Sting's voice well suits the song and he sings it brilliantly with feeling.

[video=youtube_share;EBJkb5wrw-Q]http://youtu.be/EBJkb5wrw-Q[/video]


I could imagine Dandelion doing something a bit less morose than that, a little more upbeat, but equally reflective. Sting has the reputation of a real decent chap too, in to all kinds of interesting things, did you know he owns the movie rights to Mervyn Peakes Gormenghast? Not a stranger to Fantasy then ;)
 
Yes, You will.

Wow, thanks for commenting! You, Mr. Blacha, are an incredibly effective hype master!

Would you care to say something about the localization issue (of course, if the songs are not in elvish/etc)? Do you know whether CDPR tried to find (or to ask the people responsible for localization, in case of out-of-house localization, to find) good singers in every language that gets the voiceover? I can certainly understand if you can't comment on that for now, though.


P.S. On a side note, does anybody keep track of who has the highest REDpoints/post ratio on the forums? I strongly suspect that @theta77 would be somewhere on top of that chart ;)
 
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The Skyrim tavern song was pretty good… I like it less in English but in French it’s pretty cool:
French is so beautiful, anything sounds good in French :)

Fingers crossed they already plan Dandelions "closure" to include a command performance, he deserves it :)

Well, they surely can only hint.
Great videos, also.

Yes, You will.

I understand it as "yes". Thank you very much for a hint.
 
It would be nice to have a Dandelion performance that actually sounds good in the third game.
I agree.. and I would be down with a whole new voice actor. My girlfriend and I could not stand his voice acting/singing in TW2, we didn't think it fit at all. Sting is awesome, I vote for him to be the new voice of Dandelion but I know that will never happen:(
Come on... CDPR & STING should work this one out:)
 
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