How many tracks...?

[Greeny]

Thing is, more is not always better. While it's a good point that you need to keep your audience interested auditorily as well, the problem is that when you change tracks too much, and to too many different things, the soundtrack will start to feel inconsistent and discombobulated.

It's also important that rather than a massive, epic soundtrack, for a visual novel you'll actually want to aim for loopable tracks that won't get old if you play them over a few times. Too bombastic, and you'll draw attention away from the writing, which can actually be immersion-breaking in narrative-focused works such as visual novels. On the other hand, a good ambient track can keep playing for a very long time, fading to the background as the reader immerses into the story while still remaining pleasing to the ears on a subconscious level. Of course, it's not always easy to find a good track like this.

It is of course still important to have varying tracks to reflect the changing emotional tones of the story. If used correctly, switching from an ambient track to a more bombastic (or noticable) one can be used to a good dramatic effect. Silence, however, can be just as powerful as music, if you know how to use it.

It's generally good to have one track for each emotion you want to convey - so if you have 30 emotions in your story, perhaps there's a deeper issue.

I can understand all too well, of course, how tempting it is to, say, have an extra track for each character... and why not a special theme song? And maybe the preferences menu needs a unique track as well... Oh, and this piano piece sounds lovely! I'll include it! etc, etc.

[latte]

I'm making a KN which is supposed to be 30 min long, but I feel like I'm going overboard with the number of tracks (around ten). The thing is, most scenes have distinct flavors, and even the ones with similar feelings have differences in atmosphere. Help anyone?

Also, I'd love to include an ending song with a short slideshow, lasting around 1:00 to 1:30, would that annoy people since it's a short game?

[DaFool]

I usually hover around 8-15 tracks in all the projects I've made or participated in. These range from 1 hour to 6 hours playtime. The longer the playtime, the more each track has to be a full song instead of a short loop.

I remember JRPG soundtracks come in multiple disks and are around 40 tracks or so, but when bundled in limited edition artbook combos they only pick around 20 tracks. Thus, I have the opinion that even an epic 40-hour work shouldn't really need more than 20 good full-length tracks, since the player will only find about that many to be memorable.

You can fill in the rest of the gaps with sound effects. Oftentimes silence is the best soundtrack as well.

[Desu_Cake]

I'm making a KN which is supposed to be 30 min long, but I feel like I'm going overboard with the number of tracks (around ten). The thing is, most scenes have distinct flavors, and even the ones with similar feelings have differences in atmosphere. Help anyone?

There's always the option of creating arrangements of tracks. i.e, change the tempo and key of an upbeat track to make it slower and darker. This sort of thing can really help if you have two different-feeling scenes in the same location, or featuring the same characters.

NotthatI'monetotalkabouthavingtoomanytracks

[latte]

I usually hover around 8-15 tracks in all the projects I've made or participated in. These range from 1 hour to 6 hours playtime. The longer the playtime, the more each track has to be a full song instead of a short loop.

I remember JRPG soundtracks come in multiple disks and are around 40 tracks or so, but when bundled in limited edition artbook combos they only pick around 20 tracks. Thus, I have the opinion that even an epic 40-hour work shouldn't really need more than 20 good full-length tracks, since the player will only find about that many to be memorable.

You can fill in the rest of the gaps with sound effects. Oftentimes silence is the best soundtrack as well.

There are a couple silent scenes with only sound effects already, but for others I feel music is the best choice, though I'm far from experienced at the subject. Maybe I should find some beta testers before releasing to find the right number of tracks?

There's always the option of creating arrangements of tracks. i.e, change the tempo and key of an upbeat track to make it slower and darker. This sort of thing can really help if you have two different-feeling scenes in the same location, or featuring the same characters.

I'd love to do that if the soundtrack was custom-made since it works wonders (my favorite VN did this with fantastic results), but I'm using free music. I'll make sure to keep it at mind for future projects, though.