Lots of people, myself included, find it difficult to program (or concentrate on any mentally challenging task) while listening to certain types of music.
Personally I'm partial to Norwegian Black metal for programming.
I listen to these a lot of the time, because most of them are pure electronic music with a beat, which is the most productivity-inducing music for me. A few have some speaking, so I don't listen to them.
I love programming with classical music. Classic guitar music in particular, but any classical will do.
I rarely listen to classical other than when driving or when coding.
I have my own "playlist" for programming and studying. I've found the key to not being distracted by the music is to avoid anything with singing and stick with stuff that's already familiar. My choices include a lot of ambient electronic and classical music. Oddly, metal also seems to work when the lyrics are completely indecipherable growls and screams.
Music in a foreign language works for me almost as well as instrumental music. If I hear Finnish, I somehow must listen to the words, but even though I'm proficient in English, I can just let the words go by without thinking about them.
I'm sure this phenomenon has a name, but I don't know it. Another aspect is that I can read English (focusing on that) and listen to Finnish at the same time, and I'll remember both what I heard and what I read. Doesn't work the other way around, or if both are the same language.
> I've found the key to not being distracted by the music is to avoid anything with singing and stick with stuff that's already familiar.
For me it's just the latter; vocals don't distract me as long as the song is something I've listened to 20+ times before.
Curiously, I need to match the music to my mood, not the other way around! Any disconnect between how I feel and what is playing gets me distracted very quickly. So some times, I'll be listening to calm ambient, other times I'll be blasting power metal (or even playing some nightcore from youtube). But it's always the mood that sets the music, not the other way around.
I've been listening at work for years and what works for me is:
Dark (in minor) soundtracks (electronica and classical).
Classic rock (usually in minor) that has a mostly consistent sound.
and various types of white (and other colored) noise in https://mynoise.net/ (where I donate so there are no limitations)
I used to listen to Pandora and other stations, but I found the transitions and switching songs would get distracting, so now I just listen to the same set of songs on loop.
Yes, that and the inevitable Aphex Twin. And another dude from Belgium who goes by "Igorrr" - who gets me motivated, but sometimes, I can't get through research or dense text when I'm listening to this stuff. It's a different kind of "focus", and for that, I generally need absolute silence.
Same, I've got the entirety of the PaulWay mixes (http://mabula.net/mixes/) on shuffle. Been using them for a couple of years now, not every track is good for every day but if one's not working out I just hit 'next'.
I have two rules when I’m listening to music while programming:
1. My favourite genres are K-Pop and Industrial – it helps that they are also very energetic genres — and my rule is that I can only listen to them while programming. Helps to really put me in the “you’re working now” space (thanks to Julian Shapiro for this tip)
2. I pick one song and repeat it for the entire day, sometimes for several days in a row. I’ve listened songs in the above genres so much that the lyrics don’t become much of a distraction, including new ones.
I also do this, one or a very short playlist of very similar stuff. Seems to help keep my mind locked into a particular state all day/work period. Currently long Daft Punk tracks are doing it for me.
Oddly enough, I don't own that. I must have about 30 Jarrett CDs, and quite a lot of Shostakovich (all the symphonies and string quartets), so there's really no excuse ;-)
Number 2 is the default way I listen to music - I put a song on a loop and change it when I grow tired of hearing it. For new songs this means couple of hours to couple of days; for the ones I'm familiar with it's usually something around an hour.
I can’t recall if it was like hell getting into this habit at first. But it’s so ingrained now that it’s kind of like greasing the pan before you start cooking.
You used to be able to upload your own tracks on the front page, but you really need lots of similar sections for it to skip around - Gotye someone that I used to know also worked well.
I remember spending a shift (in a kitchen) listening to nothing but "Going Loco Down In Acapulco". The challenge being to not break before someone else did.
I've done 2(repeat same song or a couple songs) for a few hours with early foo fighter while coding.
Repeating "X-Static" and "Exhausted" which have a slow plodding droning kind of sound worked for grinding out some lotus script (that was a while ago....)
The only song I can do this with is "My Favourite Game" by the Cardigans. Spent too much time as a kid playing long races on Gran Turismo 2, and it was always my favorite track.
I think it's because there are really only about 2-3 parts to the song. It doesn't really build up or down... it's a bit flat. And given that it's flat, you almost don't notice when it loops.
> 1. My favourite genres are K-Pop and Industrial – it helps that they are also very energetic genres — and my rule is that I can only listen to them while programming. Helps to really put me in the “you’re working now” space (thanks to Julian Shapiro for this tip)
I never consciously did this, other than I obviously went to the music and pressed play, but since about 10 years ago, when I really need to focus on work, I listen to a playlist of what I would call prog trance/house trance, a genre I would absolutely never listen to for the enjoyment of music. It's really weird but it soothes me when working, and it doesn't distract (by me getting too into it), nor distracts me by being annoying.
It reminds me of when I was a teen and I was an extremely tuned night person (still am, but conformed), and was really hard to wake up. Slept through alarm clock at highest setting. I scheduled a playlist on my computer, and allowed it to wake up from hibernation for scheduled events to play through connected speakers. It however ruined any music I used this way, so I had to pick music I didn't like to begin with.
Great compilation! I listen to maybe half of these already, but curiously not while working generally. I especially like Emancipator, Tycho, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Kiasmos.
I actually didn't know about him.. i'll check it out for sure !! I actually also like to listen to piano heavy stuff.. My favorite by far is Ludovico Einaudi. My favorite albums from him is "Divenire" and "In a Time Lapse". The list should be much longer :) this was just what i could remember right off the bat.
Not sure if that counts, but I really like Bohren & Der Club of Gore. It's not Ambient per se, but super-downtempo jazz-ish music. I highly recommend Sunset Mission!
I'd never heard of Roedelius. Kind of an interesting minimalist piano style. Very likeable. I'm listening to "self-portrait" (or at least that's my translation of the German).
Man, Japanaradio is still around? I remember listening to those shoutcast streams back in like 2003 or something (RIP Winamp).
I've actually found that when I get an itch for J-Pop I will scour TuneIn for a "real" radio feed from Japan. Japanaradio was always just a playlist on shuffle (or so it seemed), and there's something about listening to an actual radio station (with commercials and interstitials) that makes it feel less cold and automatic.
I don't have any particular station recommendations, unfortunately. It usually takes a bit of hunting around for a station that's playing music (though sometimes the talk radio stuff is fun as well, at least for the tiny parts of it I can understand based on my rudimentary Japanese knowledge). I usually just go here[0] and start trying out different stuff.
I recently discovered Second Toughest via a colleague and it has become one of my favourite programming music album too. And yes, I have also listened to NIN/Ministry to focus in the past. Not so much any more though.
I really like to listen to dub techno while programming. It is repetitive, no vocals, long songs (8-10min), relaxed vibe with not a lot of going on, yet very nice and ambiental.
For trance (or a lot of other electronic music genres), [di.fm](http://www.di.fm/trance/) is nice for when you can't be bothered to select a playlist etc.
I don't listen to much electronic music.
Compared to real instruments, which usually have a lot of softening qualities, the high part of the spectrum (the calabash?) sounds extremely harsh and trebly, to the point of painful.
That's a modern trend, due to the loudness-war arms race: brightness in that 2-5k area is perceived as loudness and clarity. Also it helps things pop through on the tiny speakers in laptops and mobile devices. Some speakers and headphones have their own bump in this region to increase perceived clarity and sparkle, so things can get very harsh and brittle very quickly.
"EDM" is particularly guilty of this.
EDIT: also this may be bothering you excessively if you're listening on a system lacking in sub bass: in electronic music, the crack of the snare is often set to balance the (often enormous) boom of the kick, so if you're not hearing the bottom of the kick the snare might stick out way too much.
Multiple Soma FM recommendations in the thread. That's great to see. I pay for a monthly "subscription", because it's one of those things that, if it disappeared tomorrow, would be upsetting and impossible to replace. I use it daily.
I'm going to plug Soma FM, since it's been my go-to music provider for studying since University, and carried into work. They have many genres and stations, most of which have no lyrics. No affiliation, I just love what they do.
I assume the names on the compilations are the artists/people selecting the music? I love seeing Datasette on there (multiple times in fact). Listened a lot to him.
(1 - Interestingly, started by Robert Miles, the producer responsible for the 90s pop-trance classic 'Children'. His musical sophistication has advanced quite significantly since then.)
Along with some of the other great suggestions here, soundtracks by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have been mainstays for me. Throw in some Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts and you have a nice dark soundtrack for working to.
I love these. Very good for background music, and they're repetitious, which works for me.
My wife, however, is a classical/jazz musician, so she can't use music to focus, it causes her anxiety because she spends time analyzing the music. She tends to listen to ambient noise playlists (rain, etc.)
447 comments
[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 450 ms ] threadhttps://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/68/af/48/68af48f62...
Personally I'm partial to Norwegian Black metal for programming.
I love programming with classical music. Classic guitar music in particular, but any classical will do. I rarely listen to classical other than when driving or when coding.
I'm sure this phenomenon has a name, but I don't know it. Another aspect is that I can read English (focusing on that) and listen to Finnish at the same time, and I'll remember both what I heard and what I read. Doesn't work the other way around, or if both are the same language.
For me it's just the latter; vocals don't distract me as long as the song is something I've listened to 20+ times before.
Curiously, I need to match the music to my mood, not the other way around! Any disconnect between how I feel and what is playing gets me distracted very quickly. So some times, I'll be listening to calm ambient, other times I'll be blasting power metal (or even playing some nightcore from youtube). But it's always the mood that sets the music, not the other way around.
For example, datassette starts off with big differences in volume: http://musicforprogramming.net/?three
I've been listening at work for years and what works for me is:
Dark (in minor) soundtracks (electronica and classical).
Classic rock (usually in minor) that has a mostly consistent sound.
and various types of white (and other colored) noise in https://mynoise.net/ (where I donate so there are no limitations)
I used to listen to Pandora and other stations, but I found the transitions and switching songs would get distracting, so now I just listen to the same set of songs on loop.
For me, it's got to be techno - generally happy hardcore - fast, repetitive beats and uplifting but inane (and hence not distracting) lyrics.
(I may be the only one. ;) )
Stuff like Venetian snares - since it's so mental it you have to raise your game to work with / against it.
I mainly listen to the Bonkers and Hardcore Til I Die mixes (and occasionally older stuff like Dreamscape and Slammin Vinyl).
1. My favourite genres are K-Pop and Industrial – it helps that they are also very energetic genres — and my rule is that I can only listen to them while programming. Helps to really put me in the “you’re working now” space (thanks to Julian Shapiro for this tip)
2. I pick one song and repeat it for the entire day, sometimes for several days in a row. I’ve listened songs in the above genres so much that the lyrics don’t become much of a distraction, including new ones.
I also do this, one or a very short playlist of very similar stuff. Seems to help keep my mind locked into a particular state all day/work period. Currently long Daft Punk tracks are doing it for me.
(I will not be held accountable for your resulting lapse into total insanity after 20 minutes or so.)
And it doesn't appear to be open source, sadly.
You gotta just commit to the song.
Repeating "X-Static" and "Exhausted" which have a slow plodding droning kind of sound worked for grinding out some lotus script (that was a while ago....)
I think it's because there are really only about 2-3 parts to the song. It doesn't really build up or down... it's a bit flat. And given that it's flat, you almost don't notice when it loops.
I never consciously did this, other than I obviously went to the music and pressed play, but since about 10 years ago, when I really need to focus on work, I listen to a playlist of what I would call prog trance/house trance, a genre I would absolutely never listen to for the enjoyment of music. It's really weird but it soothes me when working, and it doesn't distract (by me getting too into it), nor distracts me by being annoying.
It reminds me of when I was a teen and I was an extremely tuned night person (still am, but conformed), and was really hard to wake up. Slept through alarm clock at highest setting. I scheduled a playlist on my computer, and allowed it to wake up from hibernation for scheduled events to play through connected speakers. It however ruined any music I used this way, so I had to pick music I didn't like to begin with.
Carbon Based Lifeforms - Tensor
---------------------------
Really most CBL is good.. :) but the best albums are
---------------------------
World Of Sleepers
Interloper
Hydroponic Garden
---------------------------
Theres also artist like
---------------------------
Asura
Solar Fields
Koan
Aes Dana
Sync24 (side project from one of the CBL guys)
Ooze
Ott
---------------------------
Other good artists but a bit different ambient genre would be
---------------------------
Abakus (This dude is super productive and his shit is awesome !)
Kiasmos
Krusseldorf
Bluetech
---------------------------
If you like your downtempo more pop then try
---------------------------
Bonobo
Emanicpator
Catching Flies
Galimatias
Shlohmo
Tycho
---------------------------
That was a short list on the top of my head :)
I seem to re-discover them about once per year and I am amazed every time. Twenty Three works great for me when programming.
Vibrasphere, Kaya Project, Random Rab, Easily Embarrassed, Beats Antique, Entheogenic, Shulman, Tripswitch, Bluetech, Gaudi
Here's a Spotify Playlist with lots of good stuff: https://open.spotify.com/user/redconfetti/playlist/03bKMoeCx...
My ambient go-to:s are (in no particular order):
Roedelius
Harold Budd
Tim Story
Brian Eno
Roger Eno
Hannu
Offthesky
Deaf Center
Message To Bears
Pjusk
Everything Is
diatonis
Build Buildings
The Echelon Effect
Boards of Canada
Tycho
Ulrich Schnauss
Fisk Industries
Aphex Twin
Autechre
Function & Vatican Shadow
Sandwell District
Lucy
Rrose
Gas
Speedy J
The 7th Plain
F.U.S.E.
Ulrich Schnauss is very, very good at what he does. Highly recommended.
치타(Cheetah) - Crazy Diamond https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnWtu72LaBg
HyunA(현아) - '어때? (How's this?)' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y882AFjrSOM
4MINUTE - 미쳐(Crazy) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCLBTmjJBY
The pace isn’t quite as energetic as you’d find in EDM or Industrial, but it’s enough for me to get into flow easily.
This is a great way to listen online: http://www.japanaradio.com/
I've actually found that when I get an itch for J-Pop I will scour TuneIn for a "real" radio feed from Japan. Japanaradio was always just a playlist on shuffle (or so it seemed), and there's something about listening to an actual radio station (with commercials and interstitials) that makes it feel less cold and automatic.
[0] http://tunein.com/radio/Japan-r101255/
also Underworld's Second Toughest on the Infants album is always my go to music.
If you liked that one, get the one called NUXX, very long mixes of that album.
This sounds insanely unpleasant. Why would you do this to yourself?
For now I use trance, anything that is happy or energetic, harmonic and wih no words.
I have a long playlist that someone created on Spotify with this kind of trance.
I like it a lot for night coding :) Hope you enjoy.
Edit: [ah.fm](http://ah.fm/player/) is also good for trance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUWXoGTMePo&list=PLB851A38A6...
If you want it more boring even than that you could go for some drone music from the likes of Thomas Köner or Celer, or Gas.
Beyond that lies field recording.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lMim6e6SCM
"EDM" is particularly guilty of this.
EDIT: also this may be bothering you excessively if you're listening on a system lacking in sub bass: in electronic music, the crack of the snare is often set to balance the (often enormous) boom of the kick, so if you're not hearing the bottom of the kick the snare might stick out way too much.
- http://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/missioncontrol
- http://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/defcon
- http://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/cliqhop
Yes; tunnel, VPN. But why?
http://somafm.com/sonicuniverse/
AAC: 64k 32k MP3: 192k 128k
(File > Library > Import Playlist)
https://gist.github.com/andreis/bae8432469f59bc7287fe7264fe4...
http://somafm.com/secretagent/
http://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/groovesalad
I'm going to plug Soma FM, since it's been my go-to music provider for studying since University, and carried into work. They have many genres and stations, most of which have no lyrics. No affiliation, I just love what they do.
https://somafm.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5fM6WpC_nE
Same same.
I love this remix of the Voodoo People that's on the b-side by the chemical brothers (who were calling themselves the dust brothers at the time...):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT5VkFnU554
http://openlab.fm
http://ice04.fluidstream.net/openlab.mp3
(1 - Interestingly, started by Robert Miles, the producer responsible for the 90s pop-trance classic 'Children'. His musical sophistication has advanced quite significantly since then.)
To try to repay - if you're not already aware of it - perhaps you'll enjoy http://www.berlincommunityradio.com/
Can't take it seriously if it's still using mp3 rather than opus. What a waste of bandwidth.
Has anyone tried the tracks from Music To Code By (http://mtcb.pwop.com/) ?
I bought a few of them and IMO they are nice. The tracks are all 25 minutes in length.
My wife, however, is a classical/jazz musician, so she can't use music to focus, it causes her anxiety because she spends time analyzing the music. She tends to listen to ambient noise playlists (rain, etc.)