7 ms·
Ask HN: What do you listen to when you code?
Individual songs, playlists, artists, all suggestions welcome!
- mindcrime 9y agoIt varies. Sometimes I listen to my "stock" music - hard rock and heavy metal of all varieties, with a special focus on 80's era glam metal, speed metal, and thrash metal. Other times it's various forms of electronic music. House, trance, europop, Hi-NRG, synthwave/darkwave, etc. And then sometimes I go with classical music. Bach, Vivaldi, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Orff, etc. As far as specifics go, here's some stuff I've listened to lately: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8OELzmpgZo&list=PL7F37BB1A67E0238D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8OELzmpgZo&list=PL7F37BB1A6... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9oTQzwXYXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9oTQzwXYXk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hd8Or1RrYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hd8Or1RrYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4oZZhpMXP4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4oZZhpMXP4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyfL9LC1DC4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyfL9LC1DC4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajF2NOuYkjk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajF2NOuYkjk https://youtu.be/-7Q61fH-03E https://youtu.be/-7Q61fH-03E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGMJ2b-3eCk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGMJ2b-3eCk One other thing I'll sometimes do is put on a movie in the background, with the volume turned down fairly low... just enough that I hear some babble and noise, but not enough that I get caught up in what's going on. This only works if I use a movie I've seen / heard many times, so I already know what's happening and won't get drawn into the story. So, something like The Matrix, Antitrust, Tron:Legacy, Hackers, Sneakers, The Social Network, etc.
- randack 9y agoAnamanaguchi or "Pogo" (https://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron/ https://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron/) station on Pandora
- Finnucane 9y agoMostly various forms of jazz--lately I've been on a roll with Pharaoh Sanders and Sun Ra. But the key thing is I find it distracting to hear voices while I'm trying to work. So mostly music with no vocals.
- droidist2 9y agoI feel the same way about vocals but I also try to avoid jazz with horn solos, so I stick to piano jazz like Hiromi, Ahmad Jamal, or Chick Corea.
- RUG3Y 9y agoI like synthwave stuff when I'm programming. favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1s9SmrQRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1s9SmrQRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3NoYyNKSXQ&t=1672s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3NoYyNKSXQ&t=1672s
- AronAbromowitz 9y agodeath metal
- mtmail 9y agoChicago's 911. http://youarelistening.to/chicago http://youarelistening.to/chicago For some reason and in my timezone difference to Chicago it puts my brain into coding mode, sometimes hours. I doubt anybody else around me would enjoy that.
- glasnoster 9y agoI mostly listen to these sets: https://musicforprogramming.net/ https://musicforprogramming.net/ I also like these SomaFM stations: https://somafm.com/deepspaceone/ https://somafm.com/deepspaceone/ https://somafm.com/spacestation/ https://somafm.com/spacestation/ https://somafm.com/sf1033/ https://somafm.com/sf1033/
- quantummkv 9y agoI generally listen to heavy metal, classic and hard rock that tends a bit towards prog with long sections and a bit of classical, epic feel to them. Something like Dio-era Rainbow, Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden. A few favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6CjO0H2j0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6CjO0H2j0s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYrW3yONR44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYrW3yONR44 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVid_fLzN5g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVid_fLzN5g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDwotNLyz10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDwotNLyz10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J51LPlP-s9o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J51LPlP-s9o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTqv59JXMUk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTqv59JXMUk
- lgunsch 9y agoI don't listen to anything when coding. I need the silence, and deep thought. However, when I'm doing trivial things, I listen to classical music. Usually "Essential Classical", or something similar, on Google Music.
- TheAlchemist 9y agoThis one works really well for me, when working (discovered thanks to HN !): https://www.brain.fm https://www.brain.fm
- joshmn 9y agoSeconded. Love it.
- MrDosu 9y agoAn orchestra of fellow developer fingers dancing on mechanical keyboards!
- dubya 9y agoI have this weird memory of Tom Hudson, former Atari developer who I think ended up at Autocad, listening to the Rambo II soundtrack while developing. Not sure why this memory stuck. http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n3/programunderpres.html http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv3n3/programunderpres.htm...
- junke 9y agoMy inner voice.
- SirLJ 9y agoSports Radio - you have to know everything about your favorite teams :-)
- neuroticfish 9y agoFour Tet, Burial, Aphex Twin, µ-Ziq, etc.
- droidist2 9y agoNice choices! Boards of Canada too?
- mattbgates 9y agoMuchado in the Classic Rock and Techno/Trance genres, and 80s music, but sometimes outside of it too. From Moby, Pink Floyd, Lindsey Stirling, Disturbed, and M83 are common.
- jerrylives 9y agoGrateful Dead shows on the Internet Archive. They're free. They're long so you don't need to be interrupted to change a track. The really spacey jams put you in a creative mindspace. Plus, one of the songwriters founded the EFF!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- olingern 9y agoPinback has recently helped me write a ton of code. Tool, A Perfect Circle, Ashes Divide for a mellow, metal mood. Vitamin String Quartet when I want something familiar, but classical in taste Nicklecreek, Chris Thile, Old Crow Medicine Show, Punch Brothers for a folk fix. Kid Ory when a need a New Orleans Jazz pick-me-up
- cm2012 9y agoSongs similar to the soundtrack from RWBY
- scottwernervt 9y agoPodcasts in the morning and http://www.di.fm/ http://www.di.fm/ in the afternoon.
- jabwork 9y agoMusic with minimal words (which I find distracting) but often with vocals. Usually an album at a time e.g., Ibiza chill sessions (annual albums) Melody AM The altogether Little dragon (NPR remix) a lot of electric guitar - Steve Vai, joe satriani
- MithrilTuxedo 9y agocat /dev/urandom | sox -traw -r44100 -b16 -e unsigned-integer - -tcoreaudio synth pinknoise band -n 1400 200 tremolo 40 .1 gain 8
- 8draco8 9y agoI wanted to check it out. Installed sox on Ubuntu 17.04 and it's not working sox FAIL formats: no handler for given file type `coreaudio'
- grover_hartmann 9y agoYou need to replace coreaudio with pulseaudio, try this instead: cat /dev/urandom | sox -traw -r44100 -b16 -e unsigned-integer - -tpulseaudio synth pinknoise band -n 1400 200 tremolo 40 .1 gain 8
- BooneJS 9y agoAnything without lyrics. Classical music is my normal target, but some of Reznor's electronic soundtracks for movies works well too.
- wristmittens 9y agoDigitally Imported has a very wide range of, well, digital music. They have some free ad supported streams but the annual cost of ad-free $70 is totally worth it in my opinion. My current favorite channels are Chillstep, Liquid DnB, Nu Disco, Chill & Tropical House. Various levels of repetitive bass to keep your leg and fingers twitching, and differing tempos to either raise or lower your heart rate, depending on what you need in the moment. Web Browser Flash or mobile apps. http://www.di.fm http://www.di.fm
- vcanales 9y agoDeep house, or other kinds of repetitive electronic music. Even though I'm usually a rock/jazz person, this music is perfect some times: very chill parties, dancing alone but surrounded by people, programming. Sometimes commuting. It's relaxing, rather dronic but with enough variation to not be boring.
- dmach 9y agoIt used to have more but there is still a lot of choice. http://mikesradioworld.com/ http://mikesradioworld.com/ Cycle through BBC and Irish stations. Saving regular ones in Rhythmbox or VLC on my phone.
- faizmokhtar 9y agoDaft Punk - Tron Legacy Reconfigured Spotify Link: https://open.spotify.com/album/6yT9Q73eTMfx1aDWJiCVIt https://open.spotify.com/album/6yT9Q73eTMfx1aDWJiCVIt Never fails to get me in the mood. Edit: Add link to album
- peapicker 9y agoAutechre. Monolake. Aphex Twin. Boards of Canada. Spahn Ranch. Tycho. μ-Ziq. Loscil. Plaid. Kangding Ray. Emptyset. Shackleton. The Black Dog. Also an assortment of Psy-Trance, Coldwave, and Industrial generes.
- Fjolsvith 9y agoTangerine Dream, Vangelis
- lodestone6 9y agohttp://musicforprogramming.net/ http://musicforprogramming.net/ https://soundcloud.com/hex-ane/sets/sojourn-ep https://soundcloud.com/hex-ane/sets/sojourn-ep
- lodestone6 9y agohttp://musicforprogramming.net/ http://musicforprogramming.net/
- foobarchu 9y agoA little bit of everything...but when I really need to be productive I always put on the 'Tragic Boogie' album by The Life and Times. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7mReSQ-CZs&list=PLFNYv0PFOFQqPGhdIJGxryfkrO04l3qk9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7mReSQ-CZs&list=PLFNYv0PFOF... It's been my go-to for 7 or 8 years now. Something about it just triggers the best of my skills to come out.
- Bahamut 9y agoGenerally power metal here - Nightwish, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Gamma Ray, Angra, Edguy, HammerFall, Manowar, Kamelot, older Sonata Arctica, Demons & Wizards, etc. Sometimes I'll venture into some female-fronted metal bands like Within Temptation or Delain too. Regular heavy metal also is always fine - Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, some Dio. Dream Theater is also quite a great progressive metal band, as well as their side project Liquid Tension Experiment. Some solo guitarists make some great stuff - one of my personal favorites is Kiko Loureiro (Angra, Megadeth). As far as non-metal artists I'll listen to while coding, one of my favorites is Gary Moore - he was an extraordinarily prolific artist, one of the most genre spanning more mainstream artists I listen to. I also like listening to Kate Bush as well. I've listened to music of a lot of different genres too outside those whose artists I have listed - this might not work for everyone though. If I'm listening to something I like, I'm happy and generally avoid being distracted.
- zumu 9y agoTechno and deep house are my go tos. Generally, listening via soundcloud.
- kagx 9y agoWhen I want to be super productive I'm listening to The Lord of The Rings Soundtrack. It feels like I'm doing some epic coding things. Just imagine when you are doing git push while there is Themes Of The Rohirrim playing.
- photik 9y agoChill stuff/Wave music https://soundcloud.com/dvrksea/youre-in-my-life https://soundcloud.com/dvrksea/youre-in-my-life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4w7vgHnrYA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4w7vgHnrYA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1yBhxn7H5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1yBhxn7H5o Can't listen if I'm venturing into new territory; learning requires quiet. Otherwise it's Wave music. eg wave, vaporwave, synthwave, witch house, future funk, future beats etc
- laurencei 9y agoI love this Spotify list: https://open.spotify.com/user/ruhin94/playlist/0bG1EMQkukEeO7vvcQQQYU https://open.spotify.com/user/ruhin94/playlist/0bG1EMQkukEeO... Over 22 hours of powerful movie, game soundtracks. Gets updated with new songs all the time.
- wreath 9y agoAny sound my colleagues make.
- sotojuan 9y agoClassical chamber music, white noise, YouTube videos of people playing video games, the customer service people on the phone sitting 5 feet away from me.
- allwein 9y agoAnything in a language that I don't personally know. I find that the foreign language lyrics just pass through my brain freely whereas an English or Spanish song will sometimes grab my attentions because my brain is picking up the words. So lately it's been a lot of J-Pop and K-Pop. I used to listen to a bunch of German industrial music, but I've recently been learning German and so that's starting to interfere.
- b3b0p 9y agoDepends on what I'm coding. Sometimes I will put on old episodes of Retronauts (https://retronauts.com https://retronauts.com). Otherwise I will usually listen to OCRemix Radio / Rainwave (https://rainwave.cc https://rainwave.cc), a SiriusXM station, or an album I'm familiar with.
- mrnaught 9y agoHans zimmer instrumental.
- vram22 9y agoRarely Heard Ragas by Vilayat Khan (sitar) is very good for listening to while working, IMO. Similarly other mild melodies on stringed instruments. Relaxes you while you work. https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/10/music-video-sitar-vilayat-khan-rarely.html https://jugad2.blogspot.com/2013/10/music-video-sitar-vilaya... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayat_Khan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayat_Khan Edit(s): Vivaldi's Four Seasons is another good one for this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Vivaldi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Vivaldi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Seasons_(Vivaldi) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Seasons_(Vivaldi) Barclay James Harvest. The story of how they got their name is interesting :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclay_James_Harvest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclay_James_Harvest