Ask HN: What is your programming music? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is your programming music?

22 pointsEJE31 comments

I am learning how to program, thought it would be interesting to see what music is best for programming. It was said that music limits your creativity in programming (Blink: Malcolm Gladwell, I believe).

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Full albums by Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails. Try Ghosts I-IV and the Social Network Soundtrack.

+1 for The Social Network soundtrack. Definitely great coding music.

Things with interesting music, but without lyrics. Nine Inch Nails' "Ghosts I-IV" is a good start, as is the NIN ambient 'music' of the sound-track to the original Quake.

The Canadian indie label Constellation has a number of artists that make good coding music, including Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, and Do Make Say Think.

Other relevant artists include: Mogwai, Boards of Canada, Dirty Three, Explosions In The Sky, LCD Soundsystem, Monolake/Robert Henke, The Necks, Ratatat, The Flashbulb, The Samuel Jackson Five.

There's a few particularly good movie soundtracks I like, as well: Koyaanisqatsi, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, and Blade Runner.

Another good source of quiet, interesting, music is videogame soundtracks. I'm particularly fond of the soundtrack to Ōkami, and the OCRemix tributes to Donkey Kong Country, Super Metroid, and Doom: http://ocremix.org/albums/?&offset=0&sort=nameasc

Agreed on many of these. The "Post-Rock" genre, which usually is anthemic and instrumental makes great music for concentrating on intensive tasks. A lot of ambient electronica can be good as well, but sometimes the repetition gets monotonous.

Boards of Canada, Explosions in the Sky, Ratatat, F*ck Buttons, Tortoise, and El Ten Eleven have been in constant rotation for me lately. I often use them as seeds for Pandora as well. Works like a charm.

Agreed on Nine Inch Nails and LCD Soundsystem. Sigur Ros is also great and hasn't been mentioned.

I forgot to mention: the other day I stumbled across instrumental cello music by Zoë Keating, and immediately thought "Wow, this'll be good coding music": http://music.zoekeating.com/

Having listened to music mostly to block out background noise for a long time, I've recently discovered that listening to brown noise (such as at http://simplynoise.com) is great when I just want to focus.

Edit: fixed URL.

I think you meant http://simplynoise.com

I listen to it all the time. It's wonderful. I used to listen to music, but lately I've realized that I'm not smart enough to think of two things at once.

I just go to stereomood.com and pick the mood I want to get into.

Thanks for that. I've mainly been using old.thesixtyone.com - and I've grown rather bored.

I've had tinnitus for as long as I can remember, so "silence" for me means non-stop high pitch ringing. Thus, I use Pandora just about every hour I'm awake and around a controllable sound source.

For coding I usually pick techno, electronica, soft rock, classical, or more piano/instrumental types. It mostly depends on mood. I tend to avoid things with lyrics for coding.

More specifically, I've been addicted to Explosions in the Sky and Trifonic for months now.

Something I've listened to a lot, otherwise I get distracted by trying to pay attention (mostly to the lyrics). Lately, I've been listening to Girl Talk's All Day http://www.illegal-art.net/allday/ a lot, but I also like putting some NIN and Tool into the rotation as well.

This. All Day is excellent, and for more on the mashup side of things check out "wait what" http://www.waitwhatmusic.com/

I also love Buckethead. Energizing!

I like rock so any band that has three or four consecutively good albums that I can just push play and listen to hours of good music is a must.

Examples, Tool, Pink Floyd, Rage Against the Machine, In Flames, etc.

edit: also, almost any station from SomaFM http://somafm.com/

I have a tough time programming with music going. I'm more of a silence kind of guy. lol

try http://www.radio79.com/relax.php or http://www.chilloutradio.gr/ or http://www.fluid-radio.co.uk/ or http://musicovery.com/ or http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs (try Anne Litt) or http://www.aleph-zero.info/

True Love Waits: Christopher O'Riley Plays Radiohead Alive 2007: Daft Punk

These two plus the aforementioned NIN Ghosts I-IV and the Social Network score are in heavy rotation.

"Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta" by Geto Boys, of course... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Space)

DJ Girltalk or anything else I've heard a million times. The more I've listened to something the less I pay attention to the words and the more I let the beat take over...

Massive Attack, Prodigy, Fron Line assembly, Assemblage 23, Covenant, VNV Nation, Front 242, Hallucinogen, Infected Mushroom

something like that...

Try Shulman

Pandora radio on "Mr Scruff", lots of chill nu-jazz and such. Not much vocals, aside from samples here and there. Love it, stream it all day.

The Album Leaf - their entire discography.

It's all instrumental and is somewhere in between Explosions in The Sky and Boards of Canada.

Neurofunk. Try on the lifted music podcast from Spor and Chris Renegade on for a good dose.

Classical music (Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky), and chilly House music

John Cage's 4'33", on repeat.

Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Explosions in the sky, Interpol

Classical music! :-)

Lady Gaga.

Right now, my Pandora "Nobuo Uematsu" channel. Very well tuned, IMO.

NIN, RHCP (the soft stuff), and trance.

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