

Ask HN: What is your programming music?  - EJE

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

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

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thristian
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](http://ocremix.org/albums/?&offset=0&sort=nameasc)

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mpakes
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.

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zoradude5
Agreed on Nine Inch Nails and LCD Soundsystem. Sigur Ros is also great and
hasn't been mentioned.

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asb
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.

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hiddenbayes
I think you meant <http://simplynoise.com>

~~~
thereddestruby
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.

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sol2k
I just go to stereomood.com and pick the mood I want to get into.

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

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ncash
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.

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andrewjshults
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.

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splatcollision
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!

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mishmash
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/>

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

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ninjaa
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/>

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johndoe77
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.

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

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freshrap6
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...

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

something like that...

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ninjaa
Try Shulman

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colbyolson
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.

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erickerr
The Album Leaf - their entire discography.

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

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

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

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

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21armed
Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Explosions in the sky, Interpol

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veb
Classical music! :-)

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fezzl
Lady Gaga.

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

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

