Music

Khannie

You think it's OT...don't you? Well...you're wrong.

I'm sitting here listening to the Prodigy, as I always do when I'm coding under pressure. I find that it really focuses me. Under normal circumstances though, I'll listen to something more background-ish like lemon-jelly or some such. I even have "nature sounds" like the sea and what not which are good white-noise.

The radio's a _total_ no-no for me. I find it totally distracts me. As does most decent rock music (Smashing Pumpkins are an exception here for some reason) and a lot of the time I can't listen to tunes I don't know well while coding (again, I find them distracting).

So what do you find works for you while coding? And what distracts you?

stipey

Good idea for a thread....

Have my head phones in as we speak and I'm listening to everything and anything.... Metallica, REM, Beatles, Sinatra, Ben Folds, Classical, Violent Femmes, Divine Comedy, Bowie, Duke Special, NWA.... Mostly I just have Winamp on shuffle.

I find its great for blocking out other office sounds... phones, conversations... TESTERS... and allows me to concentrate.

I find that when I want to really get down to it, good up-tempo rock music will have steam coming from the laptop keys.

Radio is mostly a no-no - but occasionally I will listen to Moncrieff on Newstalk. I also listen to comedy mp3's - Eddie Izzard and the like.

cornbb

Coding - Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, random drum'n'bass, anything fast/complex or electronic

Debugging - Some Bach or anything equally relaxing/comforting

Evil Phil

Music distracts me TBH. I like it nice and quite when I'm working, when I'm desigining a solution even having somebody talking in the same room will put me off.

damnyanks

Yah the silence is good. I used to think music was useful to have in the background thinking I was more focused. Nope time just went by quicker cause I was busy trying to find good songs

440Hz

stipey wrote:

Have my head phones in as we speak and I'm listening to everything and anything.... Metallica, REM, Beatles, Sinatra, Ben Folds, Classical, Violent Femmes, Divine Comedy, Bowie, Duke Special, NWA.... Mostly I just have Winamp on shuffle.

Ahhh yeah, great taste!! esp on the NI front

When I'm coding I always listen to music, but then again I always listen to music full stop. Unless Im working on audio related code obviously, which is most of the time hehe!

Anyway... yeah would listen to lighter stuff when Im working, along the lines of Duke, Elliott Smith, Bowie, The Beatles, CYHSY, Tim Buckley, classical, blues, anything goes really, Im a music addict. There are some things I wont listen to even though Im a big fan, like Kings of Leon, I couldnt code listening to them, id just be jumping around the place

scojones

Great idea for a thread.

Orbital, The Prodigy, Damien Rice, Mark Geary, Josh Ritter, Nirvana.

When I'm really under pressure The Prodigy's Music for a Gilted Generation. You can't beat it.

When I'm writing documentation I usually listen to Other Voices: Songs from a Room.

Khannie

scojones wrote:

Great idea for a thread.

Cheers.

scojones wrote:

Orbital, The Prodigy, Damien Rice, Mark Geary, Josh Ritter, Nirvana.

When I'm really under pressure The Prodigy's Music for a Gilted Generation. You can't beat it.

We're very close in taste. I use orbital a lot. Nirvana's one of the bands I can't listen to while coding because they distract me, even though I know all the songs really well.

I usually use fat of the land for concentration, but jilted generation's great too.

Phil: You should try the nature sounds (the sea, or rain are good) for white noise. It very effectively blocks out external sound while not disturbing you. Also, bud earphones are good, even if you're not listening to anything they block out sound very well.

nice1franko

Silence is golden but in its absence:

Sterephonics - Bartender & the thief
Cranberries - No need to argue
Ray LaMontagne - anything
Stephen Fretwell - Magpie
Josh Ritter - Hello Starling
Norah Jones - anythin
The Police - Greatest Hits

and last and best of all:

Delerium - Karma

tis a savage bit of programmin moosic.

Used to be Damien Rice and Mark Geary too but kind of gone off 'em now!

Ginger

For programming, i use mainly up tempo house mixes, my own live mixes and the like. I generally will have some sort of music playing when i am coding because it drowns out the office noise.

I think its a case of that when I was in college and coding there, everyone had music of some sort because you can imagine a room of 50 machines clacking away (440Hz you never had the Schunam in UL but it was fricking noisey!!!)

The prodigy for me would the intense .. must .. finish before eyes explode type coding (come to think of it, i think i will listen to some now!)

AlmightyCushion

Brilliant idea for a thread op. I can listen to most types of music when I am coding as long as it's something I like. I rarely get distracted by noise when writing code. I find that rage against the machine is good for when I need to figure something complex out and quickly.

ron_darrell

Excellent thread. I find that anything with a goods drum and bass to it or lots of heavy guitars and I zoom through the coding.

Little addendum to the thread - anyone find when coding, headphones on, music on and loud and suddenly you're singing along but you can't hear yourself so you don't realise how loud you are and everyone is staring. The eyes :eek: the eyes :eek:

Mutant_Fruit

http://www.last.fm/listen/

Channel: M83.

All good music, all the time Well, i wouldn't go quite that far. But it's definitely a style i like. When coding, anything without vocals is good.

MoominPapa

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

When coding, anything without vocals is good.

Agree, which is why I listen to jazz a lot when coding. Soft Machines third, fourth and fifth are great when urgency is required and EST when things are a bit more relaxed. Great for shagging to as well;)

satchmo

I'm the same, anything with vocals is too distracting. So it's mostly jazz, some classical, and a bit of orchestral soundtracks and trad, as well as stuff like St Germain, Royskopp etc.

Except Led Zeppelin & Jimi Hendrix, for some reason they don't distract me.

Eoin

Khannie wrote:

We're very close in taste. I use orbital a lot
...
I usually use fat of the land for concentration, but jilted generation's great too.

I listen to a good bit of Orbital and some Prodigy, though I find the likes of Zero 7, Air & Morcheeba can make concentrate a little easier.

I used to try and listen to early Metallica (and justice for all, ride the lightening etc), but I just couldn't focus. At the moment, it's Muse on full blast for me.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

i can listen to most rock and indie, gnr, the answer, bloc party, the editors. any metal and im distracted!!! dam you iron maiden and metalica!

pid()

It depends on what mood I'm in, and what code I'm working on. If I'm just writing low-level code I won't have any music on because I need to concentrate and it can be a distraction at times. If I'm playing with databases I'll probably listen to Muse, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, that sort of stuff. I have a lot of people asking me questions all day long so listening to music isn't always possible.

dulpit

I have to have music on when coding, otherwise i get bored and distracted by others around me (people on phones etc.) Doesn't really matter what i listen to... I do listen to radio in mornings especially, for some reason i might not even be listening to it, just letting it wash over me helps...

Oh, and from time to time something nice and heavy like System of a Down or Rammstein will get me going...

Khannie

pid() wrote:

I have a lot of people asking me questions all day long so listening to music isn't always possible.

In my last job, I became the "expert" in my field. This is a horrible position to be in. Be warned fellow programmers! Don't fall into this trap! Anyway, I left my headphones on ALL the time (even if I wasn't listening to music) as it actively discourages people from interrupting you.

Interesting that so many use it as a way to blot out background noise.

Ginger

Know that feeling. I am the one in here ... the Go to guy for when anything tricky needs to be done