[DukeHimself]

OK, so I've conversed a bit with Jon St. John on my Facebook account over how different Duke's voice sounds in D3D as opposed to the later games. He sounds so much more gruff, I asked Jon the reason why and he said 'shitty 8-bit audio recording devices'. Honestly, wouldn't those have been remastered a while back.. what with all the mods and the Megaton edition? I think the truth is it took Jon a while to grasp Duke's voice for the first time, and it's prevalent in how awkward his tone is when saying certain lines like 'Ready for Action'. That or those were recorded at an earlier date.

Opinions? What do you guys think?

[Micky C]

It's hard to remaster something when starting off with a low quality source file.

The reason why Duke sounds more gruff (and just better) in Duke 3D is because they made him say all his lines through clenched teeth, while in later games he just said them normally. The newer ones arguably have better expression, however the clenched teeth ones are way cooler.

[Engel220]

Jon said that when he did the voice work for DNF he was allowed more freedom to say the lines in ways he felt comfortable doing, chiefly because Gearbox wanted him to deliver his best possible work. He said something along the lines of D3D's work being done in a sort of Clint Eastwood clenched-teeth type way to achieve a what 3DR thought was a real 'badass' VO, but when he was called in for DNF he had more liberty to make it feel more natural.

And as far as remastering the old VO goes, if the master file formats are low quality then it won't have much of an impact. Besides, aside from possible future reissues of 3D (or adding them to the Megaton edition) it would be a lot of time-consuming work for only so much benefit.

[DukeHimself]

Engel220, on 26 February 2014 - 01:46 AM, said:

Jon said that when he did the voice work for DNF he was allowed more freedom to say the lines in ways he felt comfortable doing, chiefly because Gearbox wanted him to deliver his best possible work. He said something along the lines of D3D's work being done in a sort of Clint Eastwood talking-through-his-teeth type way to achieve a what 3DR thought was a real 'badass' VO, but when he was called in for DNF he had more liberty to make it feel more natural.

And as far as remastering the old VO goes, if the master file formats are low quality then it won't have much of an impact. Besides, aside from possible future reissues of 3D (or adding them to the Megaton edition) it would be a lot of time-consuming work for only so much benefit.

Yes, but he didn't do gritted teeth in Manhattan Project, nor did he do it in Time to Kill or Land of the Babes I don't think.

[NUKEMDAVE]

I think one thing that's wrong with Duke's voice now is that it doesn't have as much enthusiasm in it as it used to. He sounds kind of bored in some of the recent lines that have been recorded. I think in Time to Kill, Land of the Babes, and Manhattan Project, Jon wasn't using as much jaw movement. I think he needs to return to voicing Duke like that. No gritted teeth, but some restriction.

[Micky C]

I actually disagree with that. In Duke 3D he said it in a kind of cool, disconnected way like he was mattering to himself and was carefree whether people heard him or not.

In comparison, in DNF he sounds like he trying too hard.

[NUKEMDAVE]

I had these recordings in mind when I said the voice could use more enthusiasm:



Especially at 2:03. DNF's lines were better, but some should've just been done over, in my opinion. It seemed like whenever he raised his voice too loud is when things went wrong, so you're probably right about him trying too hard. It's either that or he's not able to do it like he used to. Or he's forgotten how.

[The Commander]

The answer is pretty simple, after 10+ years anyone's voice is going to sound different.

[X-Vector]

NUKEMDAVE, on 26 February 2014 - 03:17 AM, said:

It seemed like whenever he raised his voice too loud is when things went wrong, so you're probably right about him trying too hard. It's either that or he's not able to do it like he used to. Or he's forgotten how.

It's more that he was allowed to do it the way he wanted to:

Quote

Clutch: Has the voice for Duke changed much over the years?
The voice has morphed a little bit because of the direction I was given. I had to talk with my teeth clenched all the time in a very monotone kind of delivery over the years, and you'll hear it in "Duke Nukem Forever," they've let me be a little more of who I am. I get to put the character behind Duke instead of the director. I don't want to always sound like I'm taking a crap and that was basically what I was told in the original "Duke Nukem 3D" recordings, which was "Clench your teeth and sound like you're taking a crap!"

http://guycodeblog.mtv.com/2011/06/07/jon-st-john-duke-nukem-actor/

The big problem with Duke Nukem's voice in DNF is that Jon St. John had too much freedom to do Duke his way and that the person directing him deliberately took a different approach from Lani Minella's and George Broussard's instructions for Duke 3D (which IMO is a grave mistake).

[PsychoGoatee]

I do think what he says about the low audio quality of Duke 3D is a part of it, it adds a layer of roughness. Some lines in Duke 3D like say the "K-TIT" joke sound a lot like the radio DJ style Jon St. John voice we hear more in the other Duke games. Or when he says stuff like "Cool", some lines don't sound like the clenched teeth Eastwood.

I still really dig his Duke voice today. DNF one liners

Agreed in the next Duke game maybe some more direction could be used, but I'd say Jon has still got it. And the overall audio production, extra bass and a bit of grit can be added etc.

[necroslut]

Let's not forget how shitty the lines in DNF were to begin with. But he probably should have tried to make it more rough to compensate for the higher sound quality.

[Micky C]

NUKEMDAVE, on 26 February 2014 - 03:17 AM, said:

I had these recordings in mind when I said the voice could use more enthusiasm:

How high do you think his enthusiasm is going to be when he's making lines for a shitty handheld game?

[MetroidJunkie]

I kinda like how he does the kick ass line here, like he really had fun saying it.