Comment by LeifCarrotson | Hacker News Reader

Comment by LeifCarrotson | Hacker News Reader

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I think this site does a decent job of avoiding music that can be focused on. They mention on the about page:

> we have found that the most effective music to aid prolonged periods of intense concentration tends to have a mixture of the following qualities:

    Drones
    Noise
    Fuzz
    Field recordings
    Vagueness (Hypnagogia)
    Textures without rhythm
    Minor complex chords 
    Early music (Baroque, lute, harpsichord)
    Very few drums or vocals
    Synth arpeggios
    Awesome / daunting / foreboding
    Walls of reverb

I personally don't mind a bit of rhythm, but this isn't music that your brain will latch on to and want to pay attention - it's more like pleasant ambient sounds.

However, I also suffer from an inability to get things done with people talking - I'm constantly inadvertently eavesdropping on my coworkers' conversations. I find that I have to push white noise up to uncomfortably dangerous levels to drown out conversation - your audio processing systems tolerate shockingly high SNR - but changing, musical audio like this is harder to tune out than thunderstorms or waterfalls and therefore permits me to turn down the volume.

I just wish someone would build an audio-cancelling headset, instead of the usual noise-cancelling ones that take away background noise but let voices come through clearly...

Space Ambient is best for this purpose... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuqZTQ_5gsppMEJWlJoH3...

And the closely related Space Atmoblack is quite possibly the worst...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh1Kbh5Ln8tMJ_h7IykOFkg/vid...

It is interesting that the site mentions drones, noise, fuzz and walls of reverb as being conducive to concentration. I tried a number of these tracks, and these were the features that caused me to abandon a track. Dissonance would probably aso have that affect, but ambient music tends to avoid it.

Softly-spoken words in a language I do not understand seem to work.

It may be that I am just selecting for sounds that I can ignore. When I really need to concentrate I, like the OP of this thread, prefer silence, though, unlike the OP, I am not musically knowledgeable.

So for the high volume issue specifically, mynoise.net is a great website that allows you to adjust the volume of differing frequency ranges. I particularly enjoy the white rain noise. I'll put in my headphones and turn every frequency up until it overtakes the ambient conversation or music, from high frequency to low. This allows the noise to cover up sounds but not be too loud by only being turned up where it needs to be. Essential for math in the university library.

Pure white noise doesn't quite work for me because my hearing will try to make sense of it anyway. It's akin to looking at tv static and seeing images fuzz & flicker in and out of the signal noise. Interestingly enough, this observation got me into making noise music for awhile, it started with just some noise oscillators running through filters with lfo's on them. Then add in some noise osc's with amplitude envelopes and you can create rhythmic elements, but I digress.

I had so much trouble working around people that I would get an empty conference room. The gentle AC fan in the conference room would act as a "white noise" for me, which would help me concentrate. I then found this iOS app called Noisli that had white noise that helped. But working around people has always been challenging for me especially when they get into a conference call and you can hear squeaky noises of people from the other side of the call!

For others who find they need too-loud music or noise, here's my 3 step process that works.

1. Get any in-ear earbuds (for noise even cheapy ones are fine, for music pick whatever type you like).

2. Get the foam tips to fit them: https://www.complyfoam.com/products/t-series/

3. Put some hearing-protection ear-muffs on top

A tiny amount of noise will make all other sounds disappear at this point.

It can also work the other way- if you need budget noise isolation- get foam earplugs, and over ear headphones, turn the music up while simultaneously not hearing anything but it. Saved my hearing while riding motorcycles. Cheap helmet speakers sound pretty good with the volume cranked up and ear protection in- while it blocks out the dangerous wind noise.

Good point, though that's probably less ideal for an office setting, where people can hear your cranked-up volume.

I have had some experience listening to video game music, esp those from strategy games, they are designed to stay firmly in the background during game play.

Do you have any playlist to suggest? Thanks

> However, I also suffer from an inability to get things done with people talking

Just like for the parent poster, I recommend in-ear headphones. You put them in the ears, and that's all. Listen to all the sound of no one talking and nothing playing.

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