6 ms·

Ask HN: What music do you play, while programming?

22 points by akudha 4y ago

Preferably instrumental, anything with lyrics pulls the attention towards it. And preferably something that is not too violent on the ears or too loud (like heavy metal guitar)

samsamlh 4y ago
Whatever makes you produce dopamine will help get you creative, this is very subjective. But I agree on the lyrics' effect on attention
codegladiator 4y ago
tabla by Zakir Hussain flute by Rakesh Chaurasia music by Hans Zimmer
beardyw 4y ago
Currently listening to Officium [1]. For me it both enjoyable and not distracting (lyrics in Latin) [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officium_(album) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officium_(album)
- tra3 4y ago
  I found this very enjoyable to work to https://youtu.be/_xaj8QSJZ0E https://youtu.be/_xaj8QSJZ0E
misterioss 4y ago
My Spotify playlist for focus: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Rh920TsQIOwpfpXg83XIh?si=LqJ-WyF-T9iG3Al7tZ0K4w&utm_source=copy-link https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Rh920TsQIOwpfpXg83XIh?si=...
ffhhj 4y ago
Synthwave and retrowave
- wruza 4y ago
  This and other -waves. Nothing else comes closer to The Flow in my opinion. Second place goes to psychill, and sorts of liquid dnb, jungle and ambients. I don’t get it how people can program with rock, instrumental, songs, jazz, techno, etc. Way too chatty and/or disturbing.
  - tmm84 4y ago
    I agree. Although I am a vaporwave first person. Nothing like music that feels nostalgic and meandering at the same time. I don't mind synthwave but it has gotten more sub bass and driving over time (less 80s nostalgic and more John Carpenter going dark vibes). I never got into psychill but I love some old school jungle and ambient dnb. I can't say I am really into the newer jungle/ambient dnb these days. I have listened to dark techno and I do find it ok to program to. Almost anything with lyrics, solos and the like just get me drawn away. I would recommend Tangerine Dream as one of my favorite old school synth / experimental music makers that I like to listen to while doing stuff (usually before clocking out).
sacrosanct 4y ago
Anything by Fluke or Underworld
- MrPowerGamerBR 4y ago
  Fluke is super underrated! I'm always switching between Fluke, Orbital, and Underworld Recently I'm keeping a lot of Orbital's new 30 Something album tracks on repeat
  - sacrosanct 4y ago
    What I love about those groups is that they have a lot of instrumental music which isn't as distracting. It also seems strangely tailor-made for coding, as if they were hired by coders to make music for coding.
downboots 4y ago
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=Ask%20music%20programming%20&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
justsomehnguy 4y ago
https://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/synphaera https://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/synphaera Thanks to someone on HN mentioning them.
- kingkongjaffa 4y ago
  +1 for Soma I combine the sounds from: https://lifeat.io/app?space=798 https://lifeat.io/app?space=798 and https://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/dronezone https://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/dronezone Either drone zone or groove salad.
ahartmetz 4y ago
Welp. Music that I listen to for pleasure seems more distracting than "useful", and discussing that music seems less interesting. What makes me more productive is scary music. A.n.K.h works quite well for that - it's free on Jamendo. Not something that I make use of frequently.
mikelevins 4y ago
None. Too distracting.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
cosmodisk 4y ago
I simply don't, it's too distracting.
- pull_my_finger 4y ago
  I know some people are just not interested in music, but if you were willing to give it a try I would suggest maybe instrumentals and music without lyrics. Or even music with lyrics in a language you don't know, it's easy to just tune it out instead of trying to process 2 streams of words (your work, and the music) at the same time. No matter your genre, you're likely to be able find plenty of playlists without lyrics (instrumental only). I exclusively listen to instrumentals while programming, I can't focus if there are lyrics either.
  - cosmodisk 4y ago
    Don't get me wrong, I like music, but when I work, especially if it's programming, I can't focus enough. I get distracted. However I'd be interesting to try with some classic music.
    - pull_my_finger 4y ago
      Note: I don't mean instrumental as in classical specifically. Maybe though if you like that. You can find instrumental mixes in almost all genres. Instrumental metal, instrumental dubstep, instrumental video game tracks, etc etc. I'm totally with you, I can't focus at all if there are spoken words, but a little background rhythm helps me get in the zone.
pukexxr 4y ago
I like experimental/ambient/"noise" type music. This label is one of my current favorites: fireisfree.bandcamp.com
cognomano 4y ago
While coding: electronic trance or psytrance. While analyzing: piano (the less boring, the better) or orchestral (“classic music”). While debugging: heavy metal - those pesky bugs deserve all my rage.
Aromasin 4y ago
I listen to a lot of lyricless trance/deep house/electronic music. I personally find music to be key to reaching a "flow sate" while I'm working. It's almost meditative. I've curated a Spotify playlist that's nearing 300 hrs long, although I add and remove songs on a daily basis. It was recieved quite well last time I mentioned it on HN. Feel free to check it out: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4kXkKPkOoKmWuhmGnBMVRp?si=k3WgiEi7RcGGa_lIg9vf4g&utm_source=copy-link https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4kXkKPkOoKmWuhmGnBMVRp?si=...
- aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
  RIP Trance.fm
camgunz 4y ago
I've done somafm (cliqhop), di.fm, and a lot of IDM previously (Boards of Canada, Dabrye, Slow Magic). I've also had a brief lo-fi phase. These days I'm into synthwave and chillwave, maybe some vapor or retro too. A constant, though, is I downloaded lots of video game soundtracks and made various playlists. If you're on Linux it's easy to play from the raw formats; if you're on Mac I say give up and use the MP3s. I've had friends suggest movie soundtracks (John Williams, etc). I'll probably give that a try someday.
doublerabbit 4y ago
Anything and everything. From Insane Clown Posse to Beethoven
knaik94 4y ago
I really enjoy video game scores. Nintendo is solid. Console games in general are really nice and generally instrumental. I like citypop too, since I can't understand japanese, it feels familiar without getting distracting. Sometimes I layer it with rain and turn the music volume down when I need to really isolate outside noise. This creates a baseline noise level with some variation but never enough to distract. I have been getting into covers as well. Piano covers are generally pleasant and youtube has nice hour+ long mixtape style playlist videos. Occasionally I also end up finding a genre I like that's been created solely online. A recent example is "dark academia" and I search it with the word "playlist" to get a specific vibe I want. And there's fun playlist title variations too, for example "a classical dark academia playlist for art museum dates" https://youtu.be/idJoHeHPrXA https://youtu.be/idJoHeHPrXA . That playlist has the rain already layered over the music.
andyexeter 4y ago
Lo-fi mostly, with the occasional sprinkle of Synthwave and Retrowave
mycall 4y ago
https://stillstream.com https://stillstream.com
t-3 4y ago
I have a curated playlist of thousands and thousands of songs, but I don't listen to instrumental music. I like stuff that pulls me into a rhythm and makes me get into the zone, so mostly rap.
throwaway019254 4y ago
Usually stuff where I can't understand lyrics. Like melodic death metal or Enya.
smackeyacky 4y ago
Lyricless music or music that just has repetitive lyrics or music I know really well so can pay it little attention but still be entertained. Sometimes 1950s era Jazz, trying to follow the lines of improvisation in the background seems to help me when trying to do something new or creative. If I'm doing something rote, then modern EDM is good enough i.e. Rufus del Sol or similar that is just simple layers of one note melodies, a solid beat and someone wailing on top of it. Note that I'm unsure whether listening to jazz when trying to do something creative is just a learned response i.e. that's how I set my mind to creative as a shortcut.
radiojasper 4y ago
https://coderadio.freecodecamp.org/ https://coderadio.freecodecamp.org/
cwillu 4y ago
Mostly minor-key modulations of melodies I remember from highschool band. It's hard to play much of substance given that only my right hand can reach the keyboard from my desk, and only the lower registers at that.
- cwillu 4y ago
  https://whyp.it/tracks/37013/background-recording2022-08-14t17-13-20 https://whyp.it/tracks/37013/background-recording2022-08-14t...
mzarate06 4y ago
I often listen to movie or tv series tracks. Recently that's included music from Hans Zimmer (Mission Impossible [1], Rush [2], etc.), Calm with Horses [3], El Chapo [4, 5], and The Kingdom [6]. I sometimes listen to my favorite bands (Tool, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, etc.), but like OP, I'm mostly biased towards non-lyrical while working. [1] https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=677 https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=677 [2] https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=967 https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=967 [3] https://youtu.be/85Byny4WRLU?t=89 https://youtu.be/85Byny4WRLU?t=89 [4] https://youtu.be/BBqgevV5JhQ https://youtu.be/BBqgevV5JhQ [5] https://youtu.be/wVDzx9zM0Nw?t=35 https://youtu.be/wVDzx9zM0Nw?t=35 [6] https://youtu.be/zA5kgZvRBaE https://youtu.be/zA5kgZvRBaE
jeffnappi 4y ago
Deadmau5's while 1 < 2 - though a few tracks are a bit harsh.
luckydenvermint 4y ago
Explosions in the Sky or This Will Destroy You are fantastic post-rock bands (no lyrics). Try 'em.
ludjer 4y ago
DI FM and YouTube music with trance /DNB/ trap electro.
therealdavesky 4y ago
Tiare F.M. in Tahiti. Mostly Jawaiian / Jahitian music but with a lot of weird euro, country, and retro pop songs mixed in as well.
joshxyz 4y ago
none while coding. 2pac after coding. lofi hiphop beats to relax and study to when i am researching.
btschaegg 4y ago
I own a couple of video game soundtracks on bandcamp (and regularly add new ones to the list if I find something good), and I really like those as background music. The usually have no lyrics, and are often designed to be loopable. Some of my favorites: - Crypt of the Necrodancer - The Chipzel remix of COTND - Anything Darren Korb (Supergiant) - Journey - Moonlighter - Undertale - Celeste - Hollow Knight - Ori 1&2 - Dead cells - Bleak sword - Alone - Feist - Aquaria

22 points by akudha 4y ago

Preferably instrumental, anything with lyrics pulls the attention towards it. And preferably something that is not too violent on the ears or too loud (like heavy metal guitar)

samsamlh 4y ago

Whatever makes you produce dopamine will help get you creative, this is very subjective. But I agree on the lyrics' effect on attention

codegladiator 4y ago

tabla by Zakir Hussain flute by Rakesh Chaurasia music by Hans Zimmer

beardyw 4y ago

Currently listening to Officium [1]. For me it both enjoyable and not distracting (lyrics in Latin) [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officium_(album) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Officium_(album)

tra3 4y ago
I found this very enjoyable to work to https://youtu.be/_xaj8QSJZ0E https://youtu.be/_xaj8QSJZ0E

misterioss 4y ago

My Spotify playlist for focus: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Rh920TsQIOwpfpXg83XIh?si=LqJ-WyF-T9iG3Al7tZ0K4w&utm_source=copy-link https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Rh920TsQIOwpfpXg83XIh?si=...

ffhhj 4y ago

Synthwave and retrowave

wruza 4y ago
This and other -waves. Nothing else comes closer to The Flow in my opinion. Second place goes to psychill, and sorts of liquid dnb, jungle and ambients. I don’t get it how people can program with rock, instrumental, songs, jazz, techno, etc. Way too chatty and/or disturbing.
- tmm84 4y ago
  I agree. Although I am a vaporwave first person. Nothing like music that feels nostalgic and meandering at the same time. I don't mind synthwave but it has gotten more sub bass and driving over time (less 80s nostalgic and more John Carpenter going dark vibes). I never got into psychill but I love some old school jungle and ambient dnb. I can't say I am really into the newer jungle/ambient dnb these days. I have listened to dark techno and I do find it ok to program to. Almost anything with lyrics, solos and the like just get me drawn away. I would recommend Tangerine Dream as one of my favorite old school synth / experimental music makers that I like to listen to while doing stuff (usually before clocking out).

sacrosanct 4y ago

Anything by Fluke or Underworld

MrPowerGamerBR 4y ago
Fluke is super underrated! I'm always switching between Fluke, Orbital, and Underworld Recently I'm keeping a lot of Orbital's new 30 Something album tracks on repeat
- sacrosanct 4y ago
  What I love about those groups is that they have a lot of instrumental music which isn't as distracting. It also seems strangely tailor-made for coding, as if they were hired by coders to make music for coding.

downboots 4y ago

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=Ask%20music%20programming%20&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

justsomehnguy 4y ago

https://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/synphaera https://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/synphaera Thanks to someone on HN mentioning them.

kingkongjaffa 4y ago
+1 for Soma I combine the sounds from: https://lifeat.io/app?space=798 https://lifeat.io/app?space=798 and https://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/dronezone https://somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/dronezone Either drone zone or groove salad.

ahartmetz 4y ago

Welp. Music that I listen to for pleasure seems more distracting than "useful", and discussing that music seems less interesting. What makes me more productive is scary music. A.n.K.h works quite well for that - it's free on Jamendo. Not something that I make use of frequently.

mikelevins 4y ago

None. Too distracting.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

cosmodisk 4y ago

I simply don't, it's too distracting.

pull_my_finger 4y ago
I know some people are just not interested in music, but if you were willing to give it a try I would suggest maybe instrumentals and music without lyrics. Or even music with lyrics in a language you don't know, it's easy to just tune it out instead of trying to process 2 streams of words (your work, and the music) at the same time. No matter your genre, you're likely to be able find plenty of playlists without lyrics (instrumental only). I exclusively listen to instrumentals while programming, I can't focus if there are lyrics either.
- cosmodisk 4y ago
  Don't get me wrong, I like music, but when I work, especially if it's programming, I can't focus enough. I get distracted. However I'd be interesting to try with some classic music.
  - pull_my_finger 4y ago
    Note: I don't mean instrumental as in classical specifically. Maybe though if you like that. You can find instrumental mixes in almost all genres. Instrumental metal, instrumental dubstep, instrumental video game tracks, etc etc. I'm totally with you, I can't focus at all if there are spoken words, but a little background rhythm helps me get in the zone.

pukexxr 4y ago

I like experimental/ambient/"noise" type music. This label is one of my current favorites: fireisfree.bandcamp.com

cognomano 4y ago

While coding: electronic trance or psytrance. While analyzing: piano (the less boring, the better) or orchestral (“classic music”). While debugging: heavy metal - those pesky bugs deserve all my rage.

Aromasin 4y ago

I listen to a lot of lyricless trance/deep house/electronic music. I personally find music to be key to reaching a "flow sate" while I'm working. It's almost meditative. I've curated a Spotify playlist that's nearing 300 hrs long, although I add and remove songs on a daily basis. It was recieved quite well last time I mentioned it on HN. Feel free to check it out: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4kXkKPkOoKmWuhmGnBMVRp?si=k3WgiEi7RcGGa_lIg9vf4g&utm_source=copy-link https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4kXkKPkOoKmWuhmGnBMVRp?si=...

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
RIP Trance.fm

camgunz 4y ago

I've done somafm (cliqhop), di.fm, and a lot of IDM previously (Boards of Canada, Dabrye, Slow Magic). I've also had a brief lo-fi phase. These days I'm into synthwave and chillwave, maybe some vapor or retro too. A constant, though, is I downloaded lots of video game soundtracks and made various playlists. If you're on Linux it's easy to play from the raw formats; if you're on Mac I say give up and use the MP3s. I've had friends suggest movie soundtracks (John Williams, etc). I'll probably give that a try someday.

doublerabbit 4y ago

Anything and everything. From Insane Clown Posse to Beethoven

knaik94 4y ago

I really enjoy video game scores. Nintendo is solid. Console games in general are really nice and generally instrumental. I like citypop too, since I can't understand japanese, it feels familiar without getting distracting. Sometimes I layer it with rain and turn the music volume down when I need to really isolate outside noise. This creates a baseline noise level with some variation but never enough to distract. I have been getting into covers as well. Piano covers are generally pleasant and youtube has nice hour+ long mixtape style playlist videos. Occasionally I also end up finding a genre I like that's been created solely online. A recent example is "dark academia" and I search it with the word "playlist" to get a specific vibe I want. And there's fun playlist title variations too, for example "a classical dark academia playlist for art museum dates" https://youtu.be/idJoHeHPrXA https://youtu.be/idJoHeHPrXA . That playlist has the rain already layered over the music.

andyexeter 4y ago

Lo-fi mostly, with the occasional sprinkle of Synthwave and Retrowave

mycall 4y ago

https://stillstream.com https://stillstream.com

t-3 4y ago

I have a curated playlist of thousands and thousands of songs, but I don't listen to instrumental music. I like stuff that pulls me into a rhythm and makes me get into the zone, so mostly rap.

throwaway019254 4y ago

Usually stuff where I can't understand lyrics. Like melodic death metal or Enya.

smackeyacky 4y ago

Lyricless music or music that just has repetitive lyrics or music I know really well so can pay it little attention but still be entertained. Sometimes 1950s era Jazz, trying to follow the lines of improvisation in the background seems to help me when trying to do something new or creative. If I'm doing something rote, then modern EDM is good enough i.e. Rufus del Sol or similar that is just simple layers of one note melodies, a solid beat and someone wailing on top of it. Note that I'm unsure whether listening to jazz when trying to do something creative is just a learned response i.e. that's how I set my mind to creative as a shortcut.

radiojasper 4y ago

https://coderadio.freecodecamp.org/ https://coderadio.freecodecamp.org/

cwillu 4y ago

Mostly minor-key modulations of melodies I remember from highschool band. It's hard to play much of substance given that only my right hand can reach the keyboard from my desk, and only the lower registers at that.

cwillu 4y ago
https://whyp.it/tracks/37013/background-recording2022-08-14t17-13-20 https://whyp.it/tracks/37013/background-recording2022-08-14t...

mzarate06 4y ago

I often listen to movie or tv series tracks. Recently that's included music from Hans Zimmer (Mission Impossible [1], Rush [2], etc.), Calm with Horses [3], El Chapo [4, 5], and The Kingdom [6]. I sometimes listen to my favorite bands (Tool, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, etc.), but like OP, I'm mostly biased towards non-lyrical while working. [1] https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=677 https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=677 [2] https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=967 https://youtu.be/3Rmn8HGGFj4?t=967 [3] https://youtu.be/85Byny4WRLU?t=89 https://youtu.be/85Byny4WRLU?t=89 [4] https://youtu.be/BBqgevV5JhQ https://youtu.be/BBqgevV5JhQ [5] https://youtu.be/wVDzx9zM0Nw?t=35 https://youtu.be/wVDzx9zM0Nw?t=35 [6] https://youtu.be/zA5kgZvRBaE https://youtu.be/zA5kgZvRBaE

jeffnappi 4y ago

Deadmau5's while 1 < 2 - though a few tracks are a bit harsh.

luckydenvermint 4y ago

Explosions in the Sky or This Will Destroy You are fantastic post-rock bands (no lyrics). Try 'em.

ludjer 4y ago

DI FM and YouTube music with trance /DNB/ trap electro.

therealdavesky 4y ago

Tiare F.M. in Tahiti. Mostly Jawaiian / Jahitian music but with a lot of weird euro, country, and retro pop songs mixed in as well.

joshxyz 4y ago

none while coding. 2pac after coding. lofi hiphop beats to relax and study to when i am researching.

btschaegg 4y ago

I own a couple of video game soundtracks on bandcamp (and regularly add new ones to the list if I find something good), and I really like those as background music. The usually have no lyrics, and are often designed to be loopable. Some of my favorites: - Crypt of the Necrodancer - The Chipzel remix of COTND - Anything Darren Korb (Supergiant) - Journey - Moonlighter - Undertale - Celeste - Hollow Knight - Ori 1&2 - Dead cells - Bleak sword - Alone - Feist - Aquaria