

Ask HN: Hacking Music  - vmmenon

What music do you'll listen to while in the zone ?
======
RiderOfGiraffes
Oh no, not again ...

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=61831>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=132026>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=167076>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=367418>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=668087>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=716219>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=769769>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1209378>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1525445>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1734122>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1833040>

\-----

And again, from <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=716262> \- one of the
many times this question has come up ...

None - I can't code while music is on. Ditto conversation, and ditto doing
math.

There was something in PeopleWare (I think) about an experiment done with
people listening to music. Those listening to their preferred music performed
about as well as those who preferred silence and got it, and about as well as
those who preferred music, but had silence. The group that preferred silence
but had music performed, unsurprisingly, comparatively badly.

The sting in the tail was this. The task they were given had an "Aha!" insight
buried in it. Namely, the full set of transforms they'd been asked to
implement turned out to be trivial, although the individual components
weren't.

All the programmers who had the "Aha!" moment had silence, regardless of their
preference. No one with music saw the short cut.

I've since tried to find concrete evidence to support this anecdote, either
papers, or first hand accounts, but the recounting in PeopleWare remains the
only reference I have.

~~~
Natsu
> None - I can't code while music is on. Ditto conversation, and ditto doing
> math.

I'm the same way. I have to turn it off or it distracts me and breaks my
focus.

~~~
mahmud
Not only am I incapable of productive work with music or sound, I temporarily
lose speech if I am interrupted. If the phone rings while I am coding I don't
even bother to answer: I will not be able to talk anyway, and I wont remember
anything you tell me.

------
aw3c2
This has been here countless times
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+music+wh...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site:news.ycombinator.com+music+while)
and it rarely was more than name-dropping.

------
hebejebelus
Right now, The Social Network soundtrack. Before I bought that, M83 or
65daysofstatic. Postrock, mostly, with _no goddamn lyrics_.

~~~
swah
Do you mean the 5 free ones?

~~~
hebejebelus
Nope. I actually bought the soundtrack. Only $5 for a lossless download.
€3.59, you can't exactly go wrong. <http://www.nullco.com/TSN/>

------
ifthen
Don’t know if others experience this, but I can’t listen to anything with
lyrics while figuring things out because it distracts me, so movie scores work
best. (Currently, that’s James Horner, Thomas Newman etc.) When I’m banging
work out in the production phase though where I don’t need to think, then
metalcore/metal/hard rock.

------
ggordan
I tend to listen to FrenchKissFM. It's an online radio station. Mostly
electronic, and house music. Very few lyrics which is great since it doesn't
distract me too much.

<http://www.frenchkissfm.com/?page_id=3783>

------
antareus
Chillout is my go to. Check out groups like Blue Sky Black Death (instrumental
hip-hop), Portishead, and Apparat. The genre is big -- you can spend a lot of
time finding stuff you like.

------
ciaranbradley
I thoroughly recommend "Drumming" by Steve Reich.

------
frobozz
Brown noise with oscillating volume, mostly. <http://www.simplynoise.com/>

------
phamilton
My last big code session was with ACDC playing. That was a "I've got 2 hours
to implement these features" session.

~~~
martinp
Thunderstruck on repeat. Always. From now and until the end of time.

------
pstinnett
<http://ghostly.com/discovery>

------
fictorial
<http://aux.zendesk.com/wall/>

------
wlk
I recently listened a lot of "Grateful Dead" , it really kept me going.

------
wicknicks
Anything from the Beatles to melodic death metal keeps me ticking :)

------
marssaxman
psychedelic and/or progressive trance. nothing like 135-140 bpm and a lot of
trippy filter twirling to keep my brain happy while I work.

------
hnal943
They Might Be Giants

------
ZeroMinx
Atari Teenage Riot.

------
glaze
Juno Reactor.

------
charlesdm
Vocal trance

------
kingsidharth
Zeplin!

------
gatsby
Jazz.

~~~
mehulkar
I like this idea. Any suggestions particularly?

