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Can anyone think of examples where background music in a VN had vocals and lyrics?

It seems like something that's guaranteed to foreground the music too much and maybe even make it difficult to read... but I'm really tempted to try it.

For my current NaNoReNo project, I think it'd be really cool to have (fictional) pop music playing diegetically during the background of certain scenes. I mean, people can talk while music's playing in the background, right?

But early tests confirm my initial thought -- lyrics are just too distracting.

However...

I am kind of happy with the results of stripping away everything but the chorus and then just mixing that super duper low. It seems to kind of suggest vocal music without having as much of a monopoly on the reader's attention...


Does anyone else have any thoughts or feedback here? Have you ever tried diegetic music in a VN? Did it work how you intended?

I think it could work. I mean, Persona has background music with vocals at the same time that you are walking around and talking with people.

SundownKid wrote:I think it could work. I mean, Persona has background music with vocals at the same time that you are walking around and talking with people.

True.

My concern specifically was reading, since lots of people say they can't read or write with vocal music playing. But since this is just NaNoReNo, my thought at this point is to just go for it...

I guess it would depend on the game.

If the atmosphere was quiet, where there wouldn't be even non-vocal music in real life, I would avoid it, but if the scene was a cafe or school or somewhere there might be music anyway, it could work. You would have to make sure, though, that it wasn't too loud, especially if you had voice-acting, as it could distract players from the game.

Hope I helped!

Make the lyrics sound like they’re in another language, maybe. I’m guessing that’s what the Persona team and The World Ends With You team were thinking, and since it’s kind of mispronounced English to us, it works this way too.

Otherwise, lower the volume on the vocals part so it essentially sounds like another instrument, or make the main melody not very noticeable.

Laniessa wrote:Make the lyrics sound like they’re in another language, maybe. I’m guessing that’s what the Persona team and The World Ends With You team were thinking, and since it’s kind of mispronounced English to us, it works this way too.

Otherwise, lower the volume on the vocals part so it essentially sounds like another instrument, or make the main medody not very noticeable.

Oh, man that's it -- The World Ends With You. I KNEW there was some game out there that did exactly what I was trying to describe, but I just couldn't place it. I'm going to look up that soundtrack right now.

Thanks, Laniessa. It was bothering me so much that I couldn't think of that.

As long as its quiet, I don't think it's too distracting.

I guess it's too late since it was asked for NanoReno, but for futur read, vocals songs are indeed hard to match with games and especially Visual Novel.

Hard doesn't mean impossible, but it can be distracting and it's a lot more work for the composer (writing, recording and such), so rarely something to do.
However, if it's "background" voice without clear meaning, it acts just like an instrument and it feels better.
An example could be the episode 7 from Umineko VN which had some vocal songs : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfVA1F1mdV8 & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NORRQc_C9g
Tho there you could say the voices are disturbing, but it's intended.

Make the music really quiet and almost unnoticeable. It will help set the atmosphere but won't be too distracting.

That would be very distracting for me to read and listen to music with lyrics at the same time, it will get mixed up in my head. So unless you want to play a movie and/or there are no irrelevant texts to read, maybe. Or else, I think it's not a very good idea. personally if I like the game enough, I will have to mute the music to read.

I don't think I could read if there are lyrics going on. Another language might work, but if the reader also understands the other language, that will still be confusing!

Oh, are there lyrics involved? Consider instrumental music instead? If you want to keep the lyrics, then it'd be better if there were no voices on the characters. (Sorry, I guess I didn't pay close enough attention)

Kindred Spirits on the Roof has one of the best soundtracks I've heard and a good portion of the songs have a vocal track (Albeit just la la la's and ooh's and stuff). As far as anything with actual lyrical content, I think it might be a little distracting.

Actually it's not possible for the mind to read and listen words at the same time at still clearly understand both - it will jump from one source to another all the time and both will be lost.
I wouldn't advise to mix reading and listening to lyrics unless they have same content (like karaoke).

How about using vocals as an instrument, and not necessarily for lyrics? What I mean by that is to cut the words off and just put some syllables, or any sounds. This could work, since it might not distract the reader as much as singed lyrics probably would.