
Incredibox - Background music for programming.  - bmelton
http://www.incredibox.com/en/#/application
======
whalesalad
I can hack/design for hours without even knowing it while listening to Kap
Slap.

It also helps you run a 5K faster than you might have originally imagined :)

Anyone who likes remixes/house/dubstep I'd encourage you check it out! The
spring break mix is an hour long and it's full of goodies.

<http://soundcloud.com/kapslap/kap-slap-spring-break-mix>

p.s. I'm only evangelizing this stuff so much because honestly if I set out to
run 10k I'll listen to this and it will help me get there more than anything
else. Or if I wanna kill a new comp or a handful of bugs, [PLAY] and it sucks
me in like a vortex.

~~~
AnthonyJoseph
Love this, any more recco's?

~~~
fourk
If you're looking for more mashups, check out Girl Talk, Milkman, and Super
Mash Bros.

If you're looking for similar electronic music sets, here are a couple I've
been digging lately:

Kaskade's set from Coachella, soundboard recording.
[http://www.themusicninja.com/live-set-full-kaskade-
coachella...](http://www.themusicninja.com/live-set-full-kaskade-coachella-
free-download/)

Porter Robinson's BBC Essential Mix -
[http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/porter-robinson-
essential-m...](http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/porter-robinson-essential-
mix-live-from-hull-bbc-radio1-01-28-2012)

Knife Party's BBC Essential Mix - [http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/knife-
party-essential-mix-l...](http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/knife-party-
essential-mix-live-from-hull-bbc-radio1-01-28-2012)

Luvstep 2.5 (There are several other mixes in this series, though this one is
my favorite) - <http://soundcloud.com/dirtysouthjoe/luvstep-2-5>

Straight Bass to the Dome - Coletrain
<http://soundcloud.com/cberra88/straight-bass-to-the-dome>

~~~
thetabyte
If you like Knife Party, you might like the band's main project (Knife Party
is a mini-project by two band members from a group named Pendulum.) They do
fantastic drum and bass. Immersion, their most recent album, may be their
best.

The Island Pt. II: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBIYl88Zwyc> Witchcraft:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AooMCiV2eb4>

Their other albums, In Silico (Showdown, the Temptest) and Hold Your Colour
(Slam, Blood Sugar) are also fantastic. My favorite band, personally.

~~~
umjames
That explains why I like both Knife Party and Pendulum's sound. Set Me On Fire
is an awesome Pendulum track.

------
jessep
I think the comments here are responding negatively to the title of the post.
True, you're probably not going to spend the rest of the day coding to the
music you make in incredibox. But this app is still very cool for what it is:
a fun, easily accessible experiment in making music with loops.

I put together a couple of little songs that sounded pretty cool, and the
experience was simple and enjoyable. I give props to whoever made Incredibox,
and think this general direction is promising for casual music making, an
activity that could benefit all of us.

~~~
tarr11
Agree. This app made me smile, a rare thing while coding.

~~~
samwilliams
This app also made me smile, but I have to disagree with you - I often can't
stop smiling while coding. The feeling of satisfaction when something works
out really is unrivalled. Each to thier own though!

------
guelo
My go-to for programming music is Groove Salad on SomaFM, a San Francisco
institution going on 12 years. <http://somafm.com/play/groovesalad>

~~~
eli
I was all about Groove Salad until I found <http://di.fm/>

~~~
calebmpeterson
DI and The Crystal Method were my gateway into electronic music. Over a decade
later and I haven't looked back.

------
_hiss
<http://musicforprogramming.net/> is much more useful.

~~~
sek
Thanks, exactly what i was looking for.

~~~
amanelis
have yall seen Console.fm ? Crawls the web to find the most trending
electronic music and sorts by genres.

~~~
Inversechi
I have now! cheers :)

------
courtewing
I think this is a mighty clever app; I'm not really sure why there are so many
negative comments.

It would be nice if the url changed with the sample combinations though. It
looks like you can record a chunk of the sound and share that, but I'm far
more interested in sharing the exact combination that I come up with than I am
the sound itself. I'd love to just send a link to a friend so that they could
not only see the combination in action but also dive in and make it their own.

------
dlsym
IMHO I really do not know how this nerve-racking sound can be endured while
programming. Besides it basically is just this classic on steroids:

[http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.sw...](http://svt.se/hogafflahage/hogafflaHage_site/Kor/hestekor.swf)

------
hendi_
I really like listening to online streams like soma.fm or di.fm when coding.
Not just because their sounds are great (they are!) and put me into the zone
(they do!), but because it keeps me motivated when I get the inner urge to
click around the interwebs. Why? Because I _know_ that while I'm listening and
trying to stay focused on my coding, somebody else somewhere in the world is
listening to exactly the same tunes at the same moment _and is being
productive_. That really keeps my motivation to produce stuff high!

------
nextstep
This is really fun. I like the vocals a lot and I like the interface to
control each track. The title is incorrect because I don't think the intent of
this app is for programmers to make background music to work to.

------
zackzackzack
Every once in a while all of them pause in sync. Try using distinct primes for
the length of a musical cycle to create a different sound. Not sure how it
would for beats, but I know visually this is useful.

~~~
malvim
Great and fun application, but these little pauses at the "seams" between the
loops are REALLY throwing me off.

You can't stomp your feet to this for more then one whole loop. Too bad, I
loved the idea and the implementation!

------
umjames
OK, so no one's going to mention Above & Beyond's Group Therapy Miami set for
this year's Winter Music Conference?

[http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/above-and-beyond-live-
group...](http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/above-and-beyond-live-group-
therapy-miami-wmc-22-03-2012)

[http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/mat-zo-live-group-
therapy-m...](http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/mat-zo-live-group-therapy-
miami-wmc-22-03-2012)

[http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/arty-group-therapy-miami-
wm...](http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/arty-group-therapy-miami-
wmc-22-03-2012)

[http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/andrew-bayer-live-group-
the...](http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/andrew-bayer-live-group-therapy-
miami-wmc-22-03-2012)

[http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/boom-jinx-live-group-
therap...](http://soundcloud.com/edmtunestv/boom-jinx-live-group-therapy-
miami-wmc-22-03-2012)

Or Pretty Lights' The Hot Shit radio show?

[http://soundcloud.com/prettylights/pretty-lights-the-hot-
sh-...](http://soundcloud.com/prettylights/pretty-lights-the-hot-sh-t-16)

You're welcome.

------
ahsanhilal
Trying to be not petty but I posted this weeks ago and nobody really cared:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3804637>

In any case, I really like how they explain how to user can actually use it. I
dont know what everyone else thinks, but I feel like everyone in the age
braket 18-30 wants to be a dj at a party.

~~~
MysticFear
Should be a lesson for you, marketing matters. Your title didn't get people to
click and enjoy.

~~~
ahsanhilal
One caveat, my headline can only ask people to click, though
enjoyment/fulfillment is mostly dependent on individual preferences, right?

------
drostie
Achievement 3 is awarded for "find the right combination," but there are
137980 combinations (assuming order doesn't matter) and I'm not that patient.
:x

~~~
scotty79
Are you not a hacker?

~~~
drostie
Not in Flash. If it were an HTML5 application I'd have been breaking it apart.

~~~
spz
TLDR: The combination is using the first of each sound type

Method:

1\. grabbed the .swf file (Chrome Developer Tools -> Network -> one of the 6
.swf files)

2\. used the incredible tools to extract and disassemble from
<https://github.com/CyberShadow/RABCDAsm>

3\. with luck came across
\incredibox-0\incredibox_fla\MainTimeline.class.asasm lines 24827-24840

Took me longer to write this post than to figure it out, but, I am guessing I
got lucky. I only decided to attempt checking this out as I started playing
around with the RABCDAsm couple hours ago. I've little to no idea how to read
those .asasm files yet, but I'm learning more about them.

Edit: extra spacing

------
azelfrath
This is terrible. Music should stimulate the mind, not dull it. Creepy little
men "singing" is not going to make me more focused, but a nice piece of
Baroque will certainly do the trick.

------
bane
1) Go to pandora

2) Start a new channel

3) Type "abakus"

4) vote up/down as desired

5) go on and be productive with an awesome, low-key background soundtrack

~~~
zalyh
Alternatively, grooveshark.com for people currently outside of the U.S.

~~~
fragsworth
Why outside the U.S.? I'm in the U.S. and it seems to work fine.

~~~
hebejebelus
Pandora doesn't work outside the US because of copyright difficulties.
However, grooveshark doesn't seem to worry too much about this, and as such
it's available outside the US.

------
donniezazen
My favorite is <http://somafm.com/play/suburbsofgoa>

------
petercooper
Since people are suggesting online stations here, Notch (he of Minecraft fame)
often listens to <http://www.di.fm/electro/> and somehow I got addicted to it
as well while watching him code his Ludum Dare entry. Kinda high energy
though.

~~~
eli
I've been a paying subscriber to di.fm for years. It's great.

Honestly, I barely know what the different station names mean; I just flip
through the stations until I find one that has a beat/sound that matches what
I'm looking for at that moment.

------
mbenjaminsmith
I like to listen to my turntable while coding. Getting up every ~15 minutes to
flip/change a record actually helps me focus because it gives me constant tiny
breaks. The mindless nature of the task also doesn't interrupt my thoughts but
does give me a change to stretch my legs.

------
empika
Great thing. Although I don't think it is the best music to code by,
especially as it just loops and loops! I made a similar 'remixer' in about
2003 for my university dissertation, although mine was networked so you could
mix with a friend ;) Love the art style though

------
Inversechi
I've recently been digging Weird Ribs - Frontiers album which can be obtained
free from his bandcamp.

<http://weirdribs.bandcamp.com/track/space-tourist>

If your into minimal/ambient/experimental.

------
dvee81
This is freakin' awesome guys! Android/IOS app and maybe facebook will buy you
for 1B ;)

------
yankcrime
Late to the party on this, but I highly recommend the imaginatively titled
musicForProgramming(); over here: <http://musicforprogramming.net/>

------
jscheel
I'm partial to <http://8tracks.com>. Users have posted a ton of "study" mixes
and "workout" mixes that I find perfect for when I an designing or coding.

------
Achshar
I would like to take this opportunity to make this shameless plug. I use it to
play background music while programming. An app that is a full music player
but in your browser and 100% html5. It plays local music like vlc or windows
media player. It also runs entirely offline and in background (close the tab
or browser and music still plays).

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fddboknafkepdchido...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fddboknafkepdchidokknkeidnaejnkh)

~~~
tagawa
Looks interesting. Do you have the original URL for those of us not on Chrome?

~~~
Achshar
Well the app is a packaged app. It's just like software. So it is not hosted
on any server. I am working on making it a web app but that means it won't be
working in background.

~~~
tagawa
Ah, I see. Thanks. I thought it was a hosted web app.

------
laserDinosaur
Really bad title, really awesome app.

------
umjames
With all the dubstep links here, I'd be remiss if I didn't include Philly's
own Dubsef:

<http://soundcloud.com/dubsef/dubsef-filthwater-mix-www>

<http://soundcloud.com/dubsef/dubsef-broverload-vol-2>

<http://soundcloud.com/dubsef/dubsef-all-your-bass-are>

------
siavosh
I think it's funny how [negative] some of these comments are. I think the
negative reactions here are a perfect example of Louis C.K.'s joke/rant: [1]
"Today's Tech is Wasted on the Crappiest Generation"

[1] [http://videosift.com/video/Louie-CK-on-Conan-
Oct-1st-2008?fr...](http://videosift.com/video/Louie-CK-on-Conan-
Oct-1st-2008?fromdupe=We-live-in-an-amazing-amazing-world-and-we-complain)

Edit: angry -> negative

~~~
sek
Which angry comments?

~~~
heyitsnick
It's funny, i'm 2/3 of the way down this thread and so far most comments have
been of the "i can't believe all these negative comments" ilk. I haven't seen
one negative one yet. I guess they're lower down... i think HNers should have
more faith in the upvote/downvote process.

~~~
rpwverheij
true, same experience here often. I'm often reading things here after they've
been on for a while, and I often have to read over comments complaining about
other people being negative... I would probably agree with them, if only I
would have seen any negativity besides the comments about negativity ..

------
tempire
Excellent. Love the interface. Very well-thought out.

------
sebilasse
I enjoy listening to live streams from clubs around the world thanks to time
difference and <http://www.awdio.com> . On friday afternoons (in Europe) I
ended the working week with electro/house from <http://www.awdio.com/yumla>.
Now i'm in Asia myself and this doesnt work anymore :(

------
Benjojo
:( You guys put us to 300MB/s

~~~
driverdan
That would explain why it was transferring <100kB/sec.

------
spjwebster
This (or at least the shuffle mode) reminds me of AlgoMusic, a music generator
for the Amiga that, back in the day, provided me many hours of coding music:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyUnXjVgx44>

I'm going to throw Incredibox into shuffle mode for a while to see how long it
takes me to switch back to Daft Punk.

~~~
timmaah
I can't believe your the only one in this thread that mentioned shuffle mode.
Very neat.

------
dobalina
128 bpm just ain't enough these days. ;) Coding at 150 bpm always helps with
some electronic music (eg. hardstyle)
[http://gaming.operationreality.org/groups/music/forum/topic/...](http://gaming.operationreality.org/groups/music/forum/topic/what-
song-are-you-listening-to-right-now/?topic_page=7&num=15)

------
eli
I'm surprised no one mentioned the Buddha Machine -- a physical box that loops
sounds and beats to make a similar sort of music:
<http://www.fm3buddhamachine.com/v2/> This site reminds me a bit of the iPad
app, which lets you work half a dozen virtual machines.

------
iosctr
There's some really nice links here. Thanks everyone!

I'm old school :) <http://livephish.com/radio/listen.m3u>

Some good stuff here as well. <http://www.radioio.com/genre/eclectic-
specialty/>

------
dayvid
BBC Radio 1 Essential Mix does it for me:
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wkfp>

The best DJs from around the world produce mixes every week. Pretty much
always top notch stuff that usually doesn't have a lot of lyrics.

------
myspy
Wow, this application has gone even further. I saw it I think two years ago
(or last year?) and you couldn't do that much with it.

It's very enjoyable because the loops are great.

Nothing to program to, as I enjoy alternative music (Limp Bizkit anyone?) and
playing my playlists in iTunes while coding.

------
pepijndevos
"Find the right combination" huh? Kind of subjective, right? How do you do
this?

[edit]: [http://www.howtocircle.com/2012/04/incredibox-find-right-
com...](http://www.howtocircle.com/2012/04/incredibox-find-right-
combination.html)

------
ralphsaunders
Fun to have a little play around in, although I'm not sure how much
programming I'd get done playing with this ;).

<http://www.incredibox.com/?music=4F9B48F2E5B02>

------
donum
I really like the interface. It's a joy to click around and building little
songs!

But if you record a composition and instantly stop the recording, it will
delete your whole composition. I think this isn't intentional.

------
wyck
Sorry I prefer old school dj's, they still exists and I don't have to play
with an interface ? I'll stay with <http://somafm.com/>

------
jbverschoor
How can I get at star 3?

~~~
psyklic
Complete star 2 and remove all singers. Then add the first in each category,
left to right. (How do I know this? Luck!)

------
joshmlewis
I've wondered for awhile what some good programming music is. I know this
could vary but what do some of your playlists consist of? Or even link up good
Spotify playlists.

------
bceagle
Wow, incredibly addicting. I don't think it is something I would play around
with every day, but I spent about an hour trying out different combinations.

------
dlf
This is fun. I want to be able to share my mixes though.

~~~
sasha-dv
How about this? <http://www.incredibox.com/?music=4F9C15381AD42>

------
isurfbecause
I also like turn <http://turntable.fm/ambient_chillout_trip_hop2>

------
ilaksh
Something happened on my computer where it took like 3 minutes to load. May be
an issue with Flash.

Also wasn't able to drop anything.

Using Chrome on Ubuntu.

------
sherlocked
My go-to coding music is the TRON: Legacy soundtrack, but this is turning out
to be a pretty awesome alternative so far.

------
xtc
SomaFM is the key. Cliqhop + Groovesalad. <http://somafm.com/>

------
dudurocha
This is amazing, man. But it actually made me stopped coding, instead, I'm
enjoying all the combinations.

------
mratzloff
This many replies and no one has mentioned how creepy their hipster mutation
mascot is?!

------
omarish
This is so much fun. Thanks to whomever created this. Will give it a spin
starting now.

------
yblokhin
I am officially addicted. One can't make anything that sounds bad with it! So
badass.

------
wicknicks
Very cool! Next thing: randomly change the tunes every 3-4 mins :)

~~~
Groxx
There's a shuffle button in the top right

------
ZanderEarth32
This is incredibly cool. Having a blast messing with it.

------
fady
yeah, i found this to be super fun and i felt like a dj for about 10 mins
while i made my beats. job well done.

------
Hervetar
Flash Blocked!

------
richardlblair
Props. This is a very cool project.

------
abs_farah
I absolutely love it! I don't know what else to say.

I'm guessing there are plans to increase the number of different sound types?

------
pjmlp
Hackers soundtrack :)

------
shakesbeard
the greatest thing about this app is the shuffle mode.

------
n9com
this is excellent - needs to be an iPad app.

------
booleanbetrayal
great job ... beautiful interface!

------
fadelakin
I love it.

------
maz29
people still use flash?

~~~
novalis
You do now there is a place for rich media on the web and it is very popular.
Don't you?

------
kin
that was fun

------
lifeinafolder
mind=blown.

------
robotment
really good

------
bedspax
spettacolare

