Ask HN: What are your working tunes? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are your working tunes?

18 pointsviaHack45 comments

I really get things done with the Album Leaf's Enchanted Hill album. Unfortunately, the album eventually ends. Looking to add to the arsenal, so I want to know: what are some artists or albums that seem to put you in the zone?

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"The Sims 3 Pets" soundtrack. No joke. I've never played The Sims 3, but like the soundtrack because it is like [good] elevator music. Kind of reminds me of the SimCity 2000 soundtrack, just happy but with that undertone of momentum.

Game and movie soundtracks are great for work. Particularly when they are just scores or choirs (as opposed to bands, duets, or single vocalists). Way less distracting.

"that undertone of momentum". Yes.

Limbik Frequencies http://tunein.com/radio/Limbik-Frequencies-s2225/

I've made a spotify playlist that tries to mirror it. It's not as good as the real thing but it's a start:

http://open.spotify.com/user/rickrrr/playlist/2ajgobJG1lMT1I...

Cool. Following.

You might want to try the FTL soundtrack at http://benprunty.bandcamp.com/album/ftl. I listen to a lot of video game soundtracks, recently Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, FTL, a few from Portal and Portal 2. Sometimes Chipzel (http://chipzel.co.uk).

Ozric Tentacles. Perfect psychedelic space rock jams with no lyrics.

From Wikipedia: Ozric music is a highly psychedelic mixture of driving basslines, keyboard and intricate guitar work, with a sound influenced by Steve Hillage and Gong. Many of the Ozrics' songs are in unusual time signatures and/or unusual Eastern-influenced modes. Furthermore, the band often features complex arrangements, which change time signature, key signature and tempo frequently in the course of a track, a well-known element present in progressive rock. There are also moments of straightforward funk-influenced grooves and strong influences from jazz fusion, dub/reggae and ambient music styles.

These features are mixed with electronic elements, including densely layered psytrance- and techno-influenced arpeggiated synthesizers, pads, synth basslines, effects and programmed drumbeats. There is also a strong influence from dub and ambient music, with many quiet relaxed tracks, that balance the frenetic, intense material.

http://musicforprogramming.net/

Ambient seems to work best for me. More generally speaking, calm, instrumental music (i.e. no vocals), which includes some jazz-y music as well (In A Silent Way by Miles Davis, or Sunset Mission by Bohren & Der Club of Gore, to name two).

If that is up your alley, I can recommend the following artists:

Boards of Canada come to mind. Carbon Based Lifeforms (especially their album "Twenty Three"). Marconi Union. Steve Roach made some pretty awesome stuff (Structures From Silence especially).

Every now and then - rarely, actually, but that is not a statement - I will get out the Cocteau Twins. There are lots of vocals, of course, but rarely anything resembling lyrics, so that works for me.

Also, some of the stuff Dead Can Dance made before they split up was pretty great. Towards the Within and Spiritchaser were quite great.

Interesting topic. For working, I prefer calm music myself, like a few others in this thread, though I like other more active or vigorous kinds too, when not working.

I've thought about this myself and tried to find music to listen to while programming or writing. Haven't found too much that I like, somehow. Will check out the links in this thread.

Here is one that I do like - blogged about it here, with a link and embed to the music, and someone I know also said they liked it for working - a sitar performance by Vilayat Khan (Rarely Heard Ragas), who was of the calibre of Ravi Shankar:

http://jugad2.blogspot.in/2013/10/music-video-sitar-vilayat-...

David Tipper's Forward Escape is some of the best music I've heard in the last 10 years, and doubles as great programming music too: http://open.spotify.com/album/6iXjPAUqAY5c3cVe1lNHut

The Crypt of the Necrodancer soundtrack is really great: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrS1RyuoG0I

Instrumental prog is pretty good: Liquid Tension Experiment, Joe Satriani, Scale the Summit...

Thanks for the suggestions! Great background music.

Following a LPT from /r/programming, I'm trying video game soundtracks, which are supposedly designed to help you concentrate on the task at hand, whether that's grinding or a boss fight. No guarantee that you'll get the boss fight song when you're in the middle of something difficult, though, so YMMV.

Currently using: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/borderlands-2-original-sou...

Chiptunes are great for programming. Check out fantomenk.

https://soundcloud.com/fantomenk/cpu-mood-2010

https://soundcloud.com/fantomenk/dischipo-2009

https://soundcloud.com/fantomenk/fantomenk-playing-with-powe...

I like WMD on bandcamp: https://wmdchiptune.bandcamp.com/album/this-was-the-end

I also really liked this set, but some people may find it a bit much: https://chibitech.bandcamp.com/album/chibi-tech-live-blip-fe...

I don't think it's available yet, but I'm curious about Carl Franklin's project "Music To Code By". He's specifically trying to craft an album that's "designed to induce a state of flow suitable for writing code."

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/311638984/music-to-code...

That's a pretty cool idea. Will check it out, thanks.

I don't have the patience to discover and curate a lot of music myself these days (atleast not enough to last my work day), so I like a couple of online radio stations. This one is my favorite:

WritheM Radio's Programming Electronic and Alternative on Grooveshark: http://grooveshark.com/#!/writhem/broadcast

http://di.fm has a wide variety of electronica that appeals to my various moods... most frequently Liquid DnB or Chillstep these days, but Chillout Dreams and Vocal Trance are also favorites. I'm usually on there unless I wanted to listen to a specific artist on Google Play All Access.

I used to listen to di.fm a lot a couple of years back. I stopped listening when I got myself a new desktop computer at the beginning of 2009, and made the mistake of buying an Asus EeeBox. For some reason, Shoutcast streams in general would run very badly on that machine, so I stopped. :-/

Thanks for the hint, I will see how that goes. :)

Video game music & rearrangements, especially from http://ocremix.org, but most typically metal, especially of the power & progressive variety. I like to constantly engage my brain, especially with overtones of overcoming adversity, so power metal is perfect for that.

While I personally prefer electronic music, I was kind of surprised that most of the programmers I've met in person seemed to be into metal, covering pretty much everything from good old Black Sabbath through Power Metal all the way to Grindcore and Black Metal.

Not that I am judging in any way. I used to listen to a lot of Heavy Metal, and I still do occasionally (especially when I am angry/frustrated - it seems to have a cathartic effect on me).

For programming, I prefer calm, quiet, unobtrusive music, but apparently there are many programmers out there who like to rock. :)

I like to listen to a lot of rammstein. That powerful chugging bass melody and the not-english vocals help keep me motivated.

Depends on the task and my mood. Classical and prog-rock are the most common for me. Lately, I've found myself not having any music most of the time—I'm better able to concentrate without it. I think that's partially because I am a musician, and I find myself analyzing it (regardless of whether it has words).

Pink Floyd, M83, Porcupine Tree, Dead Skeletons Dead Mantra, Arcade Fire, Naked and Famous. Some of it is very spacey, some of it I have listened to so many times I don't pay attention to it any more. If you still like the above bands but are tired of the albums, move on to bootleg concerts.

Not an artist or album specifically, but Soma.FM is my go-to for work noise. Instrumental electronica, ambient, or you get it it with lyrics if you like. One of my faves is ambient with SF public safety radio (police, fire) dubbed on top. Sounds weird, but works well for technical work.

http://8tracks.com/yellowcake/

8tracks has a lot of great playlists. The key is finding a user who makes good ones. This yellowcake guy has over a hundred, of which almost all are great.

I tend to gravitate to music without lyrics.

I've been listening to a playlist I found on Spotify - "Beats to think to"

Also, if you like the sounds of a coffee shop, checkout coffitivity.com (no affiliation). If I'm in the right mood, gets me in the zone.

I think no lyrics is key! Instrumental tracks are less intrusive and have a lot of repeating patterns.

I completely agree!

I think it is the acoustic equivalent to the Clippy effect: Human voices tend to take up a substantial portion of our mental bandwidth, because it is not just a sound our brain has to recognize, but then it has to go and actually understand the words being said or sung.

Instrumental music tends to have - at least on me - the opposite effect, it occupies the parts of my mind that otherwise might distract me, leaving the parts doing the hard work alone.

Mostly the Trance channels on DI.FM .. Vocal Trance, Epic Trance, Classic Trance, etc.

I find Trance has enough energy/momentum to motivate me, without being distracting like most of the rock/metal/otherstuff I listen to other times.

Overwerk, Orbital, and similar electronic/ambient artists are my zen-mode gotos. 9:00am after writing code until 4:00am? It better have screeching electric guitar and heavy bass. Industrial is a great way to wake up.

My Pandora channels on shuffle - largely: drum-n-bass, ska, and punk. For me, Pandora requires the least cognitive load. If I start finding it distracting - rather than beneficial - I hit pause.

The ads...

For the mid-afternoon slump, I dig Dave Snelgrove's bass tracks: https://soundcloud.com/davidsnelgrove

I think https://bop.fm has good potential for creating playlists since it uses multiple services you can find most songs.

I like more instrumental post-rock stuff like Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Explosions in the Sky, as well as some more electronic stuff like Vondelpark or CFCF.

white/brown noise- ocean waves, rainfall, etc.

A couple links that have crossed the HN Radar before:

http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/waterfallNoiseGenerator.php

http://asoftmurmur.com/

http://musicforprogramming.net/

I knew musicforprogramming, but the first two links are awesome, too. Thank you very much!

From the suggestions I've checked out soma.fm has been my favorite. DEF CON station is doing me right

pick a song and loop it. loop it for 5-6 hours. it's something that will get into your skin but then fade off and become a nice sofa to sit on (per say). After an hour any song on loop will just become working background.

The "Deep Focus" playlist on Spotify

The Aquabats "Charge!!" 24/7

Soma.fm

Lately M83 Pandora station

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