Made a Pandora station seeded from the artists in all the mixes.
This is definitely one of the areas that is to each his/her own.
I found (the majority of) trance music superficial and get quite easily bored listening to them. Songs with lyrics messes with the language processing module of the brain and I don't want that kind of distraction. So I listen to classical, instrumental, OST and some techno (that are NOT tons of bass).
Example of songs I am listening to now:
Pierre Bensusan - Kourouts Nota (highly recommended)
Eric Johnson - Gem
Steffen Schackinger - On a rainy night
The Glitch Mob - Animus Vox
Klint - Diamond (OST from Snatch)
Mirwais - Disco Science (OST from Snatch)
Nathaniel Mechaly - Opéra (OST from Snatch)
...
In case anyone is interested, this is my playlist on Grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Sen+s+Music+For+Coding/66931...
Again, music snobbery is one of the worst topics of discussion (I certainly don't want to invoke it), to each his/her own.
My absolute favourite album to code to would actually be the Tron Legacy soundtrack by Daft Punk, but I've also spent the last few years at uni listening to http://www.prettylightsmusic.com/ while I code: his albums are all available for free/donation, and the genre is kind of down-tempo electronic. There's the occaisonal vocal sample, but I've found it doesn't distract me from work.
Endtroducing by DJ Shadow is also worth a listen, as although there's vocals, they're generally calm. Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32X-ieCav-M
I used to find http://musicforhackers.com/ the perfect background to coding, but they're down, and I've never worked out another source of the sort of stuff they played.
My go-to artist is Zoe Keating (layered cello, and on bandcamp as an added bonus: http://music.zoekeating.com/). She's also quite interesting to follow: she's heavily into twitter, and is quite open about her profits, dealings with labels, etc.
Otherwise though, vocal-less trance is usually pretty effective. I love all the recommendations these threads bring up -- thanks everyone!
Atmospheric drum'n'bass is where it is at for coding. Warm lushness, yet rhythms that will help you keep your mental cadence up.
Here are two mixes you should DL & listen to:
http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/1%20-%20Monday/Atmosphe...
http://archives.bassdrivearchive.com/4%20-%20Thursday/Scenic...
Lush atmospherics, low-slung 29-38hz basslines, rock out to either full-time at 175bpm or half-time at 87bpm, depending on your mood.
If you use background music only for noise cancellation (crying babies, reconstruction works etc.), I recommend http://www.simplynoise.com/. It's not as distracting as even the most minimalistic trance.
Whilst not music, I find listening to http://www.rainymood.com to be great for concentrating. It's a 30 minute sample of a rain storm.
It got me through my Master's dissertation, where I had it on loop for hours at a time.
Fiddler tells me you can currently grab the mp3 from here http://173.193.205.68/audio/RainyMood.mp3 (this was especially useful for the times I wanted to be disconnected from the internet to focus on work).
Somafm.com has a few channels with few drums or vocals
9 beet stretch might be of interest to anyone wanting something long noise/dronescapes
from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2715066
"If someone integrated a contextual playlist generator into a web-IDE and changed the music based on length of current session, degree of nesting or other complexity values, time of day based on location, etc..., I think it would be a much appreciated feature."
Jan Jelinek's music is great for programming. At least for me. :)
I wish these were compiled in a Soundcloud - something mobile-friendly that lets you skip around in a mix without downloading the thing. And the hosting is pretty slow.
I used to be able to dev to any kind of music or talk, but it's gotten harder as I've gotten older. Sometimes I try to pick music that culturally matches the web site I'm working on.
- Classical: sometimes pleasant, but can be too dramatic. - Hard electronic (dance, club, dubstep): too distracting
Minimal or ambient techno tends to be way to go when I'm trying to focus on something, but need something to keep that part of my mind occupied. Soma.FM and Digitally Imported have the best streaming stations for that, IMHO.
http://somafm.com/spacestation/ http://somafm.com/dronezone/ http://www.di.fm/minimal http://www.di.fm/chillout
I think the site is starting to creak under the strain. Perhaps a torrent of the MP3s would be a good idea?
Few years ago I wrote an extreme time stretching software ( http://hypermammut.sourceforge.net/paulstretch/ ). You can use it to get a nice audio ambiance from any music or sound.
I pretty much just play Trent Reznor when I don't feel like putting together a playlist.
I've also really enjoyed listening to motorik rhythms lately. Something about that beat makes me feel like I'm constantly moving forward. Stereolab are the modern masters...
Side question: why do you think so many coders prefer electronic music to be productive?
Based on the comments here, electronic music (whether it's ambient, trance or dubstep) appears to be the assumed genre.
One of my favorite CDs for coding: Ecco the Dolphin. I'm not making it up, the CD by Spencer Nilsen is amazing, just perfect to code to. Also, the song "Water Ruins" from the video game Jet Force Gemini and anything by Opus III is excellent as well. Then there's "Just Hold On" by Jillian Aversa, and Super Metroid remixes on OCRemix, "Kindred," "Avien," and "Solitude." And I have dozens of trance CDs for coding too.
Alpha and Omega (dub) and is the music I code by, repetitions, echos and reverb, the groove just takes you forward in your code. Example: http://grooveshark.com/s/Chantig/41T4IJ?src=5 http://grooveshark.com/s/Higher+Than+High/2JhKQT?src=5
Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works?
For me they are two 'states'. When i am doing something 'tough/complicated/new etc' that needs 100% of my attention i need complete silence, no music, no sounds, nothing. When that's not the case (95% of time) i am fine with any kind of music, my taste goes from dubstep to classical and based on the mood i am fine to listen to anything.
http://comtruise.com/kc/ More Com Truise mixes
Got a "bandwidth exceeded" error message. Too bad.
Buddhists often chant mantras to stay in meditation. I suspect that a steady beat / rhythm has a lot more to do with concentrating than any specific genre. It gets the rest of our minds jogging along with the thing we're trying to achieve.
509 Bandwidth Limit Exceeded :-(
Guess the hacker news-dotting did it. Care to torrent the files? :-)
I find that music with no lyrics is most helpful.
Stuff like a lot of post rock, such as Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Another option is Math Rock like Battles (I am actually listening to Gloss Drop right now).
Personally I enjoy minimal electronic music while coding. It fits nicely into the background while still sounding interesting.
This site has some good minimal mixes http://deepmix.eu/
I've found the drone music this guy does fantastic for zoning in while coding: http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/
Particularly of note is his 8 hour album "Field Recordings from the Edge of Hell" http://zacbentz.bandcamp.com/album/field-recordings-from-the... . It's my go-to when I need to sit down and concentrate.
I was recently pointed to http://block.fm/ as I like to go with some beats to work with and they have some great Dnb and electronica shows. Usually I can't cope with any words, lyrics in the song or presenters on a show, but if I can't understand the words, in this case because I speak no Japanese, it's not a problem and sometimes it's nice to have voices (outside my head) as part of the white noise.
Instrumental classical mix works best for me. I put on Mozart or Beethoven radio on last.fm and just skip all the stuff with words (i.e. opera)
Wow, you're really asking for a lawsuit aren't you? I mean, MP3s available for download for free on a simple HTML website? What is this, 1998?
Personally I find music without vocals, or very familiar music in the background to be useful. Blocks out the occasional car going past. Post-rock is really good unless it sends you into a trance haha.
Actually hate working with headphones on now. Similarly using music I love to block out noisey work environments doesn't work. (Well, noisey work environments just don't work do they!).
FWIW: I'm on last.fm as rock666
Matt Mullenweg's method (at least, that's where I first heard it) of playing one song on repeat really works for me.
I like short, simple songs. Something like a song off CYNE's album Evolution Fight works really well. For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP2ISUThbcQ&feature=youtu...
I've an Icelandic kick going on at the moment, some really great music coming out of there.
Try Johan johannsson http://www.ausersmanual.org/stage/ which is good but also with extra hacker kudos given the topic
Also Olafur Arnalds http://olafurarnalds.com/multimedia/
Reading through the comments, I'm glad that there are people on HN who know what good music is - from Trance and Ambient to Dubstep and what not.
And I want to say that Com Truise's album Galactic Melt is one of the best albums for me for 2011. It gets even better if you combine it with Daft Punk's TRON OST and put those two on shuffle.
I will add my 5 cents with a mention of Qawwali music and specifically works of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. See, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustt_Mustt. This is not just a ticket to the zone for me, more like a teleport :)
I was playing Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto when a contractor came for an on-site and he remarked on how it was good "design music". He mentioned he preferred ambient music whilst doing cognitively intensive work. When doing something rote, rock, pop or metal was a good choice.
Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter put me in the mood quite nicely. Mozart, the three tenors, and similar stuff also work (but most of the time not as good as the former artists).
Nonetheless that's rara avis among my coworkers, anyone else listening to similar stuff while coding?
I typically just listen to my rockabilly/psychobilly station, I can't handle the trance/techno/ambient/whatever music everybody else seems to advocate. A good Reverend Horton Heat track has a good beat and fast pace too, it's just a lot more fun for me.
OK, the site seems down. I managed to download half a mix until i got timeouts. If anyone managed to download those track, a mirror somewhere else, or a torrent would be really nice. Anyone care to provide us with a mirror?
As a general rule, we're looking for 1 hour long noise/dronescapes with no (or very few) drums or vocals.
Happy coding / knitting / drawing / running / painting / writing / baking cakes!
Apparently this should really be called "MusicToGetThingsDone" :)
Groove Salad has always been one of my favorite streams for coding. Lots of down-tempo stuff, tasteful choices: http://somafm.com/groovesalad/
I wrote a blog post about this a while back, I'll just leave that right here.
I really like DJ Shadow for this kind of thing. Try "Midnight in a Perfect World": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmzHRGoKca0
Would love it if there were Spotify playlist links for these.
I always listen to http://designers.mx/ when I work, lots of great mixes and a nice way to discover new genre.
Ulrich Schnauss, System 7, Man With No Name, Art of Trance, Dimension 5, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Astral Projection, Kraftwerk, VNV Nation...
That Com Truise mix is nice. Also check out his Komputer Cast 4 part set http://comtruise.com/kc/
I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned Hybrid yet: http://www.hybridsoundsystem.com
nice. thanks for the mixes. i use "boards of canada" pandora station to accomplish the same idea. you get a lot of down tempo, ambient styles.
dj finny's dnb mixes have been sustaining me for years: http://www.mixcloud.com/finny/
i can't handle the monotony of trance, and dubstep can be a bit too much. a lot of dnb also tends to be repetitive, but finny keeps things lively enough for you to pay attention to code
http://musicforprogramming.net/ now has an RSS feed
The site is unresponsive, but I wanted to recommend:
Philip Glass symphonies Wagner's The Ring ( unless you speak German ) Slayer
My favorite album to listen to while I code is probably Blockhead's "The Music Scene." Gets the blood pumping.
http://www.kievbass.com/podcasts/ works for me
I think the site might be going a bit slow for me. Is there a mirror?
I love listening to Paul Kalkbrenner while programming.
I was unconsciously searching for this for a while!
What is the license for this music?
I can't concentrate on programming because my brain can't ignore how bad the music is.
Pink Floyd Mozart Bach
i usually stream psytrance, works well for some reason :)
Röyksopp is #1!!!
Wrong in so many ways.. I don't know where to start.
ETN.fm guys.
daft punk, daft punk, daft punk.
account suspended whaaa???
Some of my favourites:
Michael Brook - Err: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcyQISCPTTs Michael Brook - Ultramarine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITFyP9b7ius Michael Brook - Several Times II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK-oVQaTg_4 Cliff Martinez - Helicopter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogDj3uXLP7w Hammock - Maybe they will sing for us tomorrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6kKjyHrXMw
Too comments. Nevertheless, I want to share, High Tone, that's all http://www.hightone.org (fuck dubstep, let the old people stick to dub)
http://musicforprogramming.net/ now has an RSS feed
this music is the suxx0r. goa trance > all
Music possessing these qualities can often provide just the right amount of interest to occupy the parts of your brain that would otherwise be left free to wander and lead to distraction during your work.
Finally - someone who recognizes that there's a curious & busy part of the brain which must be kept preoccupied during complex tasks, and mixes music just for that purpose.
"Trance" music podcasts are a great approximation for this. (See "The Vocal Trance", "Above & Beyond: Trance Around The World", "The Perfect Mix", "Push The Night", "Perfecto Podcast", "The Sound of Trance", "Shakedown Podcast")
ETA: Alas, too many managers don't understand this; they think you're getting distracted by the music, and can't comprehend that it is necessary to facilitate focus.