Senior software developer at Amazon Web Services. I work on the AWS Serverless Application Repository and AWS SAM. I’m passionate about writing quality software and teaching others how to do the same.
Location
Seattle, WA
Education
BS Computer Engineering, Minors: CS and Math
Work
Sr. Software Development Engineer at Amazon Web Services
The entire soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings trilogy is great. A day of writing code can sometimes feel like a bare-footed journey from the comfort of the Shire to an ork-surrounded volcano via the lair of a giant man-eating spider, so it's really quite thematically appropriate: youtu.be/_SBQvd6vY9s
Usually heavy and high-energy. Usually metal. I put together some of my favorites albums and removed anything that wasn't high-tempo: open.spotify.com/user/mikengarrett...
I usually forget to put headphones on. Once I start coding time flies and I forget about music. When I do remember, I find music without too much lyrics does the trick. Mogwai is a good band to listen to.
Very similar. Chilled dubstep, a lot of instrumental hip-hop (anything by Blue Sky Black Death!) ambient tracks. I try to stay away from action movie soundtracks because the turns of pace make me anxious.
It's about a 50/50 split. When I really need to focus, I use songs I know I like from my saved (most of which came from discover). When I can focus a little less, I casually look for new ones.
I recently got into the sound track from The Social Network movie and I find it to be the perfect mix of tempo for me. I definitely recommend it. Great sound track in and of itself, but also reminiscent of a movie all about building a pretty damn popular website.
I've been working with Ruby on Rails and several front-end technologies since 2010. Since then, I have successfully developed and maintained several commercial projects. Nowadays, I'm a full time f...
brain.fm/
Seriously, within seconds into listening to the focus mode, I get thrice the concentration level. In about 30 minutes I'm almost in a trance. I recommend taking breaks from time to time, though; if I listen to it for too long I feel weird and disconnected from the reality.
Whether we use React or Vue or Angular, we will regret it. Instead let’s solve the problem then choose the technology
Interested in UI/UX, design thinking and data visualization
According to last.fm, I mostly listen to Ambient, Electronic & Jazz. Artists like:
Nils Frahm
Ólafur Arnalds
Gustavo Santaolalla
Floating Points
Rival Consoles
Boards of Canada
GoGo Peguin
Bonobo
and many others.
I used brain.fm previously, and while it works it can get tiring after a few weeks of listening to the same drone sounds. Too me what most helps me get into flow is calm, smooth, deep background music.
I started with JS about 10 years ago and I fell in love with it (even though it can be weird 😅). I had step backs in my career that ended up being good. Currently I'm a passionate front-end developer.
Why a post from 2017 appeared on my homepage? Haha!
It is hard to tell what I listen when I code, because I listen to a lot of music, but when I'm the mood I put some motivational upbeat music from my “Motivate Me” playlist, if you need some motivational songs:
Almost anything from Beatles to Taylor Swift to Daft Punk to Rachmaninoff when writing boilerplate code or simple stuff, but I need total silence when writing complex algorithms or debugging, so I always carry a couple of rubber ear plugs from hardware stores.
Noise Cancelling headphones without the music (QC35, previously QC15). I've tried many things like brain.fm, focus zen, simply noise, focusmusic.fm - all of them became boring after 2-3 weeks.
I also have a 'debugging' playlist on spotify - when I need less concentration. 'Fast' music without vocals - liquid Drum 'n' Bass, Daft Punk's TRON: Legacy OST. Sometimes i switch to classical music when I'm working on something frustrating - Tchaikovsky symphony 5, Vivaldi Four Seasons, Camille Saint-Saens or Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet.
I like to thing of myself as die hard death metal fan, but I can't code with this music.
It totally depends on the situation. When i am in a greenfield project i like to hear some electronic tunes. I like things without lyrics like Jean-Michel Jarre or Rival Consoles. Or on other occasions i really enjoy David Hicken (piano artist which if you did not know him you should definitely check it out ).
If i'll have to bugfix something in a legacy code base (it happens from time to time) i sometimes need some energetic or aggressive tunes. E.g. Carpenter Brut or The Algorithm are quite good for this kind of work. Even though sometimes i hear music with lyrics i find it most of the time distracting while coding.
Oh hey look, my playlists just grew by a couple hundred songs! Thanks a ton!
I actually do have some stuff from John Murphy. I just didn't stick it on the list because the number of songs was so low compared to those other ones.
Focused on creating wonderful user experiences by attending to folks needs with empathy and creating spaces of safety. Senior Frontend Developer/Tech Lead at Dolittle.
Working in an open office means headsets with noise cancellation is a must. I used to listen to well-known Rock / metal music. I've found more that the more variation there is, the easier it is to et distracted.
After discovering mindfulness I've started enjoying silence, and that's the music of my choice these days: silence (noise cancellation almost works for that)
I've found the TRON / Social Network soundtracks to be quite enjoyable when not doing brain-taxing work.
It can be anything really, mostly pop and hip hop; sometimes k-pop, or classic rock or big band. What I tend to do is play the same songs over and over and over again.
Anytime my music starts up after being stopped, I start at the beginning of one giant Spotify playlist I've been adding to over the years. I know how many times I've been interrupted by how often I've heard the first song today, or how deep into the playlist I got.
Switch(mood){
case 1:
Atmospheric/ Epic/ Ambient Metal
break;
case 2:
Post Grunge/ Stoner Rock
break;
case 3:
Old School Rap/Hiphop/RnB/Pop/Electro
break;
case 4:
The Weekend haha
break;
default:
Shuffle all
}
Metal, 90's rock (nirvana, pearl jam, alice in chains, etc), tons of hip hop (E40, Too $hort, Snoop, Dre, Biggie, etc), Alt rock/Indie (Coheed and cambria, Spoon, Arcade fire, The Shins, etc), and finally sometimes I will put on various forms of electronic music, but I tend not to pay too much attention to who the artist is.
Depends on the day, but I really like those lo-fi hip hop streams on Youtube. You know, the ones with the looped old anime backgrounds? youtube.com/watch?v=h8W73zB4VMM
I also enjoy liquid dubstep/chillstep. Anything that's relatively low tempo and mostly instrumental, really.
I tried listening to the music I usually like while working (mostly rock), but felt I was concentrating on the music instead of my work.
Sharing my personally curated EDM/Electronic music playlist here (has almost 600 songs and growing. I also update it almost every day). I listen to it everyday and it works well for me!
I love coding in silence, and I do it whenever possible. It can bring my concentration to the levels I will never reach with music: if I listen to some new recommended music, then occasional intrusive and lyrics-rich tracks are inevitable; if I listen to something I already listened to, some tracks distract me with associated memories.
When coding in silence is not possible, I usually turn on some noise or find playlists for coding, depending on current mood.
I recently discovered instrumental hip-hop, and have found it's the perfect music for day-today coding. It's not too distracting if I need to focus, but keeps me in a groove. A couple of my go-tos would be Jaku by DJ Krush or Endtroducing by DJ Shadow. If I don't need to think too much, and just need to bang out some code, I like something more aggressive, like metal or dubstep.
Frickin' Hands Up and Techno music at the time. Actually, mostly from web radio. Not even sure if I love it or hate it; they don't always play tracks I like. I'll definitely check out your playlist. Thank you!
For some reason, if I really need to concentrate and get stuff done, Pink Floyd's "Animals" album is my go-to. I suspect it's some combination of the fact that I like it, but also that it has a bit of a trance-like nature to it that does not pull my attention away from what I'm working on.
Trance, primarily from DI.fm. I'm a big fan of their Vocal Trance and Epic Trance channels. I'm usually either streaming one of those two channels, or listening to songs I first heard on those channels and added to my collection.
Generally heavy bleepy-bloops, with a bias towards non-vocal. The Glitch Mob are excellent in this respect, though both Mystery Skulls and Studio Killers do a great job of keeping me focused, despite the vocals.
Depends--monkey work that I don't have to think too much about, Bluegrass and Irish Folk. (I keep it traditional.) If I have to think and problem solve, Space, Drone, Ambient, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Biosphere, Brian Eno, Aes Dana.
Sometimes I just want something more like close to white/grey noise, but with a dab of a beat to it so then I'll listen to this, title "CLEANSE Destructive ENERGY From Over-Thinking | Theta Binaural Beats" youtube.com/watch?v=Cpw_Wkm05j8
Both of these channels have other variations on these themes as well.
I like to code with rock (heavy metal, power metal, progressive, rock and roll, Psychedelic) but sometimes when the coding session is intense I switch to electronic. I think the difference relies on the tasks and my mood. I'm big fan of Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk; and of course good music comes with a nice pair of headphones. I recommend Bose QC25 or QC35
I like to code with rock (heavy metal, power metal, progressive, rock and roll, Psychedelic) but sometimes when the coding session is intense I switch to electronic. I think the difference relies on the tasks and my mood. I'm big fan of Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk.
I like to code with rock (heavy metal, power metal, progressive, rock and roll, Psychedelic) but sometimes when the coding session is intense I switch to electronic. I think the difference relies on the tasks and my mood. I'm big fan of Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk.
I usually listen to Metal: HardCore, MetalCore, Post HardCore, Death Metal, symphonic Metal, you name it. :)
I listen to albums on my phone. I regularly check Apple Music for new releases of bands I know or similar/recommended bands.
It pushes me forward and blocks out the sounds of our office (~25 people).
Well... There's a bit of everything. It's usually fast instrumental music from many artists on the Internet, like F-777 or Waterflame (just to name a few). And there are some musics on Soundtrack that are great too.
Also listening to a bit of Undertale soundtrack (it's a great one) and remixes of it.
On Todo list: make a proper playlist or some kind of album of coding music
I can mostly be found all over the place. One day it might be the soundtrack of "how to train your dragon", the next it might be ska or electroswing to any electronic one. One golden rule though: if there is a bass involved; deeper means better
Heavy Metal!
Heave metal with earbuds (usually from computer instead of smartphone).
I play selected playlist and usually like last.fm for music discovery.
For the heavy metal theme spotify, deezer none satisfy my taste so I build my own playlists..
Recently I've been enjoying listening to the FIP Radio: fipradio.fr/player
They mostly play jazz, classical music and melodic rock. I find that very fitting for me when I'm coding.
Although sometimes I enjoy switching to something more fast-paced and/or heavy: Carpenter Brut, Caravan Palace, PUP, Paramore, Astronautalis, Guts.
You want full list or something specific? I'll give you a scoop.
Crapton of synthwave/newwave, jpop+jrock, some vgm osts for good measure.
It really depends on the task and the general mood, but here's a few examples:
"Droid Bishop - lost in symmetry" album
Uplink ost
Various Jpop/Jrock (usually OPs), to example - Slayers Try Ost (treasury vox), or jam project discography
Little big adventure ost
Legend of kyrandia 2 ost
Panorama Cotton Ost
Super Hydelide ost (out of freedom, chaos separator and light metal specifically)
Crusader - No remorse/no regret ost
Big Pharma ost
Theme Hospital ost
Planet mule theme
F.T.L. ost (including extended version with Hacking malfunction and Lost ship)
Raiden 1 ost
Tyrian Ost
And that's to name a few. My collection grows month by month C:
Also no headphones - 5.1 system. Easier on the head.
I work out of a home office and tend not to use headphones, maybe I should try that though.
Nonetheless, I usually listen to something in the "Focus" mood of Spotify, trying something new each time that I run through an entire playlist. I do find that I am most focused/productive when listening to songs that do not have lyrics played. One thing that I use to love listening to was the Daft Punk - Tron Legacy album/soundtrack (youtube.com/watch?v=OIM8RxaK5rE)
I will normally listen to something along the lines of 'chill' music. I find it relaxing and it helps me focus.
I will also occasionally throw in a random song that doesn't fit with the rest of them once in a while, because I just found the song or just remembered it from a while back.
The list that I have is always changing. I find a song, listen to it way too much, and then it gets boring. So I will always go through Spotify's Discover weekly playlist, and that will usually have a good song or two.
Currently, I'm listening to remixes by (DJ) Vanic - Make Me Fade, Can't Sleep & The Cops are my favourites. I have a song or two by K.Flay, a song or two by Lil Dicky, and not too much else. This is sure to be different by this time next week though.
If you want ambient background noise I can't recommend this site enough - dozens of constantly varying soundscape generators... mynoise.net/
All the samples are designed so you never get repetition and you can adjust the frequency balance for optimal distraction blocking (because Janet in Accounts has a voice that occupies 10KHz...)
If you donate a bit of £/$ (no minimum), it helps pay for the bandwidth and support the guy who runs it. He's sourcing sounds in person and everything is top quality.
When I need to focus (designing an algorithm for example) I'll have this on. Otherwise if it's straightforward plugging Bootstrap templates together Chillstep/Chillhop/Vocal Trance makes me code a bit faster :)
I listen to soundtracks for the most part.
Movies: The Lord of The Rings, Unbreakable, Road to Perdition, Ex Machina, Planet Earth Part 2 to name a few.
Games: Journey, Assassin's Creed Revelations and Dead Space 3 are my top choices in this category.
I also use some of Google's Play Music channels like Trappy Instrumentals, Soft Trap Beats, Downtempo Instrumentals and Classic Ambient.
What music I listen to depends on my mood personally. It could be Grunge, Punk, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Indie, Folk; you name it. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of the comedy playlists on Spotify.
Fleet Foxes radio on Apple Music, something like the Stranger Things soundtrack or a custom Focus playlist that I put together consisting of a lot of film scores (Deathly Hallows, Star Wars, Jane Eyre [Dario Marianelli], Winter's Bone, Doctor Who, etc.)
It depends, I have 2 programming moods, depending on whether there are strong theoretical background to what I have to code or not (for scientific projects at school), I use classical, or a mix of punk/pop/rock/alternative
Mostly hans zimmer instrumental. also Braid Soundtrek (Downstream my fav.)
Mainly instrumental only as I don't want to lose my concentration repeating the lyrics.
Different Guitars cover do as well :)
I usually like silence if I can get it. Otherwise if I really need to concentrate I grab coffee and listen to something with bi-neural beats over youtube.
If I'm working on something that doesn't require much concentration or is boring then I listen to "The Magicians" in the background (which I've watched so many times now that it's good background noise.
A modern Renaissance man, with a diverse skill set and a love of learning. My old job dealt with all things online learning (and some IRL classes). My side projects have taken me all over the place.
Depends on the day. Today it's Jimmie Bratcher. :)
Other days it's been some mix of Hendrix, Chickenfoot, Audioslave, Joe Bonnamassa. Some times it's a bit of Ozzy and Metallica. I break out the classical from time to time.
I think the only type of music not represented in my collection is rap. Just doesn't appeal to me.
I just searched on Spotify and found this playlist, which is really cool for now!
I change my preferred playlist/songs/...form time to time so sometimes I hear dubstep, or concentration music and sometimes even no music, but that's not usual
software developer with almost no qualifications, but a strong desire for learning. i believe that you can make it without qualifications if you push yourself.
don't give up. the difference betw...
Displaying a subset of the total comments. Please sign in to view all comments on this post.
I use Endel app for focusing.
Jay Z 4:44
The Dark Knight’s soundtrack
Oh that sounds great
Right now Lost on You by LP. What I listen to varies with my mood and what I am working on.
musicforprogramming.net/
+1
thanks
Thanks! I'm going to give this a listen this morning.
The entire soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings trilogy is great. A day of writing code can sometimes feel like a bare-footed journey from the comfort of the Shire to an ork-surrounded volcano via the lair of a giant man-eating spider, so it's really quite thematically appropriate: youtu.be/_SBQvd6vY9s
Yes! Bit too dark sometimes but works great anytime after lunch
Usually heavy and high-energy. Usually metal. I put together some of my favorites albums and removed anything that wasn't high-tempo: open.spotify.com/user/mikengarrett...
If you're looking for somethign new, here's the best metal releases from 2016: open.spotify.com/user/mikengarrett...
Oh yes, metal, dubstep or anything high energy. An absolute must!
Exactly the same here. It works so well.
Same here, preferably with harsh, mostly indecipherable vocals. Prevents me from getting distracted by the lyrics.
Agreed.... metal of all kinds, though I tend to shy away from doom/black/death...
I usually forget to put headphones on. Once I start coding time flies and I forget about music. When I do remember, I find music without too much lyrics does the trick. Mogwai is a good band to listen to.
You must not work in an open office!
YES. Mogwai all day everyday.
Love the range there. Add the Atmospheric Black Metal playlist from Spotify and Netsky dnb stuff. Mood dependant always.
Ludovico Einaudi! I love Divenire, especially when I'm frustrated by something. I haven't tried Lindsey Stirling while working, but I'll have to now!
I'm usually creeping my spotify discover playlist for Liquid / DnB tracks, and chill EDM. Nice, ethereal background.
Very similar. Chilled dubstep, a lot of instrumental hip-hop (anything by Blue Sky Black Death!) ambient tracks. I try to stay away from action movie soundtracks because the turns of pace make me anxious.
Try Aso on soundcloud real cool
👌🏿
So you're usually looking for new tracks, or do you listen to the same ones a lot?
It's about a 50/50 split. When I really need to focus, I use songs I know I like from my saved (most of which came from discover). When I can focus a little less, I casually look for new ones.
There is another kind of music?
Pirate Metal?
Prog Metal. Otherwise you are missing Dream Theater, Devin Townsend, Leprous, Haken. And what kind of life is that?
You're right!
I recently got into the sound track from The Social Network movie and I find it to be the perfect mix of tempo for me. I definitely recommend it. Great sound track in and of itself, but also reminiscent of a movie all about building a pretty damn popular website.
Such a great soundtrack, I can never skip it when it comes on!
Great album, as almost any OST by Trent Reznor. I also enjoy listening to Lost Girl and Before the flood ones.
Likewise. Great choice for coding.
brain.fm/
Seriously, within seconds into listening to the focus mode, I get thrice the concentration level. In about 30 minutes I'm almost in a trance. I recommend taking breaks from time to time, though; if I listen to it for too long I feel weird and disconnected from the reality.
The Skyrim soundtrack (or any Elder Scrolls ones) as well as electronic or ambient music usually.
This! Spotify has a good collection.
Anything by Jeremy Soule is good.
Hans Zimmer Always!
Mostly instrumentals because the lyrics can sometimes distract me and lead to a solo performance that no one needs or wants to hear.
Here are some of those:
This 😄
soundcloud.com/epicmountain
According to last.fm, I mostly listen to Ambient, Electronic & Jazz. Artists like:
and many others.
I used brain.fm previously, and while it works it can get tiring after a few weeks of listening to the same drone sounds. Too me what most helps me get into flow is calm, smooth, deep background music.
BoC is perfect
Why a post from 2017 appeared on my homepage? Haha!
It is hard to tell what I listen when I code, because I listen to a lot of music, but when I'm the mood I put some motivational upbeat music from my “Motivate Me” playlist, if you need some motivational songs:
open.spotify.com/track/6PgVDY8GTkx...

open.spotify.com/track/0cVyQfDyRnM...

open.spotify.com/track/2xC3aQCmwgs...

I know I'll be listening to those later, is this how Music Monday started? I remember that Michael posted those 🤘🏽
I mostly find any music with lyrics, etc. is sometimes too distracting.
So ambient / electronic is always nice.
Also, I've always found SomaFM Defcon music - is always good.
somafm.com/player/#/now-playing/de...
I like SomaFM. I made a simple page for me to listen Groove Salad :)
wildauer.io/somafm/
Depend on the mood but here's my overall genres
== Geek Stuff Incoming ==
Am I the only one listening to Interstellar OST? It's pure bliss, it takes us to whole new dimension.
A mix of ambient, electronic and jazz. Disparition, explosions in the sky, Adam Young, Miles Davis and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Almost anything from Beatles to Taylor Swift to Daft Punk to Rachmaninoff when writing boilerplate code or simple stuff, but I need total silence when writing complex algorithms or debugging, so I always carry a couple of rubber ear plugs from hardware stores.
Noise Cancelling headphones without the music (QC35, previously QC15). I've tried many things like brain.fm, focus zen, simply noise, focusmusic.fm - all of them became boring after 2-3 weeks.
I also have a 'debugging' playlist on spotify - when I need less concentration. 'Fast' music without vocals - liquid Drum 'n' Bass, Daft Punk's TRON: Legacy OST. Sometimes i switch to classical music when I'm working on something frustrating - Tchaikovsky symphony 5, Vivaldi Four Seasons, Camille Saint-Saens or Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet.
I like to thing of myself as die hard death metal fan, but I can't code with this music.
It totally depends on the situation. When i am in a greenfield project i like to hear some electronic tunes. I like things without lyrics like Jean-Michel Jarre or Rival Consoles. Or on other occasions i really enjoy David Hicken (piano artist which if you did not know him you should definitely check it out ).
If i'll have to bugfix something in a legacy code base (it happens from time to time) i sometimes need some energetic or aggressive tunes. E.g. Carpenter Brut or The Algorithm are quite good for this kind of work. Even though sometimes i hear music with lyrics i find it most of the time distracting while coding.
Yes, I like obscure instrumental artists. Any more anyone can recommend?
You don't have Max Richter or Yann Tiersen on this list? I'm surprised. Also: Johann Johannsson, Nathan Barr and the Sunshine OST (John Murphy!)
Oh hey look, my playlists just grew by a couple hundred songs! Thanks a ton!
I actually do have some stuff from John Murphy. I just didn't stick it on the list because the number of songs was so low compared to those other ones.
Working in an open office means headsets with noise cancellation is a must. I used to listen to well-known Rock / metal music. I've found more that the more variation there is, the easier it is to et distracted.
After discovering mindfulness I've started enjoying silence, and that's the music of my choice these days: silence (noise cancellation almost works for that)
I've found the TRON / Social Network soundtracks to be quite enjoyable when not doing brain-taxing work.
Zachtronics' games soundtracks, e.g. SHENZHEN I/O OST: zachtronics.bandcamp.com/album/she...
Some Ben Prunty, e.g. Cipher: benprunty.bandcamp.com/album/ciphe...
In general, preference for electronica.
Yes! Love the Shenzhen I/O soundtrack.
It can be anything really, mostly pop and hip hop; sometimes k-pop, or classic rock or big band. What I tend to do is play the same songs over and over and over again.
Anytime my music starts up after being stopped, I start at the beginning of one giant Spotify playlist I've been adding to over the years. I know how many times I've been interrupted by how often I've heard the first song today, or how deep into the playlist I got.
Electronic. Dubstep, Trance, Techno, whatever. Lots of Lindsey Stirling, actually.
Switch(mood){
case 1:
Atmospheric/ Epic/ Ambient Metal
break;
case 2:
Post Grunge/ Stoner Rock
break;
case 3:
Old School Rap/Hiphop/RnB/Pop/Electro
break;
case 4:
The Weekend haha
break;
default:
Shuffle all
}
Metal, 90's rock (nirvana, pearl jam, alice in chains, etc), tons of hip hop (E40, Too $hort, Snoop, Dre, Biggie, etc), Alt rock/Indie (Coheed and cambria, Spoon, Arcade fire, The Shins, etc), and finally sometimes I will put on various forms of electronic music, but I tend not to pay too much attention to who the artist is.
Depends on the day, but I really like those lo-fi hip hop streams on Youtube. You know, the ones with the looped old anime backgrounds? youtube.com/watch?v=h8W73zB4VMM
I also enjoy liquid dubstep/chillstep. Anything that's relatively low tempo and mostly instrumental, really.
I tried listening to the music I usually like while working (mostly rock), but felt I was concentrating on the music instead of my work.
Sharing my personally curated EDM/Electronic music playlist here (has almost 600 songs and growing. I also update it almost every day). I listen to it everyday and it works well for me!
open.spotify.com/user/complexchris...
I love coding in silence, and I do it whenever possible. It can bring my concentration to the levels I will never reach with music: if I listen to some new recommended music, then occasional intrusive and lyrics-rich tracks are inevitable; if I listen to something I already listened to, some tracks distract me with associated memories.
When coding in silence is not possible, I usually turn on some noise or find playlists for coding, depending on current mood.
I recently discovered instrumental hip-hop, and have found it's the perfect music for day-today coding. It's not too distracting if I need to focus, but keeps me in a groove. A couple of my go-tos would be Jaku by DJ Krush or Endtroducing by DJ Shadow. If I don't need to think too much, and just need to bang out some code, I like something more aggressive, like metal or dubstep.
Frickin' Hands Up and Techno music at the time. Actually, mostly from web radio. Not even sure if I love it or hate it; they don't always play tracks I like. I'll definitely check out your playlist. Thank you!
Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Itamar Assumpção.
For some reason, if I really need to concentrate and get stuff done, Pink Floyd's "Animals" album is my go-to. I suspect it's some combination of the fact that I like it, but also that it has a bit of a trance-like nature to it that does not pull my attention away from what I'm working on.
Trance, primarily from DI.fm. I'm a big fan of their Vocal Trance and Epic Trance channels. I'm usually either streaming one of those two channels, or listening to songs I first heard on those channels and added to my collection.
Video games soundtracks, currently Broken Age's, but these are cool too:
Generally heavy bleepy-bloops, with a bias towards non-vocal. The Glitch Mob are excellent in this respect, though both Mystery Skulls and Studio Killers do a great job of keeping me focused, despite the vocals.
Depends--monkey work that I don't have to think too much about, Bluegrass and Irish Folk. (I keep it traditional.) If I have to think and problem solve, Space, Drone, Ambient, Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Biosphere, Brian Eno, Aes Dana.
If I'm looking for variety, I'll usually listen to Programming Music Mix for Dark Minds: youtube.com/watch?v=KGH26RaM0M4
Sometimes I just want something more like close to white/grey noise, but with a dab of a beat to it so then I'll listen to this, title "CLEANSE Destructive ENERGY From Over-Thinking | Theta Binaural Beats" youtube.com/watch?v=Cpw_Wkm05j8
Both of these channels have other variations on these themes as well.
I like to code with rock (heavy metal, power metal, progressive, rock and roll, Psychedelic) but sometimes when the coding session is intense I switch to electronic. I think the difference relies on the tasks and my mood. I'm big fan of Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk; and of course good music comes with a nice pair of headphones. I recommend Bose QC25 or QC35
I like to code with rock (heavy metal, power metal, progressive, rock and roll, Psychedelic) but sometimes when the coding session is intense I switch to electronic. I think the difference relies on the tasks and my mood. I'm big fan of Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk.
I like to code with rock (heavy metal, power metal, progressive, rock and roll, Psychedelic) but sometimes when the coding session is intense I switch to electronic. I think the difference relies on the tasks and my mood. I'm big fan of Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk.
Mostly the playlist I've created over two years ago and kept updating ever since - open.spotify.com/user/d4rkypl/play...
It's a mix of dnb, dubstep, hardstyle and other brain sledgehammers to keep you from feeling tired and sleepy :)
I usually listen to Metal: HardCore, MetalCore, Post HardCore, Death Metal, symphonic Metal, you name it. :)
I listen to albums on my phone. I regularly check Apple Music for new releases of bands I know or similar/recommended bands.
It pushes me forward and blocks out the sounds of our office (~25 people).
Well... There's a bit of everything. It's usually fast instrumental music from many artists on the Internet, like F-777 or Waterflame (just to name a few). And there are some musics on Soundtrack that are great too.
Also listening to a bit of Undertale soundtrack (it's a great one) and remixes of it.
On Todo list: make a proper playlist or some kind of album of coding music
I can mostly be found all over the place. One day it might be the soundtrack of "how to train your dragon", the next it might be ska or electroswing to any electronic one. One golden rule though: if there is a bass involved; deeper means better
Heavy Metal!
Heave metal with earbuds (usually from computer instead of smartphone).
I play selected playlist and usually like last.fm for music discovery.
For the heavy metal theme spotify, deezer none satisfy my taste so I build my own playlists..
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7goQ0B...
last.fm/user/habibcs
Hate Nu metal
Doom metal
Doom death metal (FAV)
Melodic death metal (FAV)
Death metal
Deathcore
Hardcore
Black metal
Power/War/Thrash metal
Recently I've been enjoying listening to the FIP Radio: fipradio.fr/player
They mostly play jazz, classical music and melodic rock. I find that very fitting for me when I'm coding.
Although sometimes I enjoy switching to something more fast-paced and/or heavy: Carpenter Brut, Caravan Palace, PUP, Paramore, Astronautalis, Guts.
You want full list or something specific? I'll give you a scoop.
Crapton of synthwave/newwave, jpop+jrock, some vgm osts for good measure.
It really depends on the task and the general mood, but here's a few examples:
"Droid Bishop - lost in symmetry" album
Uplink ost
Various Jpop/Jrock (usually OPs), to example - Slayers Try Ost (treasury vox), or jam project discography
Little big adventure ost
Legend of kyrandia 2 ost
Panorama Cotton Ost
Super Hydelide ost (out of freedom, chaos separator and light metal specifically)
Crusader - No remorse/no regret ost
Big Pharma ost
Theme Hospital ost
Planet mule theme
F.T.L. ost (including extended version with Hacking malfunction and Lost ship)
Raiden 1 ost
Tyrian Ost
And that's to name a few. My collection grows month by month C:
Also no headphones - 5.1 system. Easier on the head.
I work out of a home office and tend not to use headphones, maybe I should try that though.
Nonetheless, I usually listen to something in the "Focus" mood of Spotify, trying something new each time that I run through an entire playlist. I do find that I am most focused/productive when listening to songs that do not have lyrics played. One thing that I use to love listening to was the Daft Punk - Tron Legacy album/soundtrack (youtube.com/watch?v=OIM8RxaK5rE)
Tycho. Always, Tycho.
I will normally listen to something along the lines of 'chill' music. I find it relaxing and it helps me focus.
I will also occasionally throw in a random song that doesn't fit with the rest of them once in a while, because I just found the song or just remembered it from a while back.
The list that I have is always changing. I find a song, listen to it way too much, and then it gets boring. So I will always go through Spotify's Discover weekly playlist, and that will usually have a good song or two.
Currently, I'm listening to remixes by (DJ) Vanic - Make Me Fade, Can't Sleep & The Cops are my favourites. I have a song or two by K.Flay, a song or two by Lil Dicky, and not too much else. This is sure to be different by this time next week though.
If you want ambient background noise I can't recommend this site enough - dozens of constantly varying soundscape generators...
mynoise.net/
All the samples are designed so you never get repetition and you can adjust the frequency balance for optimal distraction blocking (because Janet in Accounts has a voice that occupies 10KHz...)
If you donate a bit of £/$ (no minimum), it helps pay for the bandwidth and support the guy who runs it. He's sourcing sounds in person and everything is top quality.
When I need to focus (designing an algorithm for example) I'll have this on. Otherwise if it's straightforward plugging Bootstrap templates together Chillstep/Chillhop/Vocal Trance makes me code a bit faster :)
I listen to soundtracks for the most part.
Movies: The Lord of The Rings, Unbreakable, Road to Perdition, Ex Machina, Planet Earth Part 2 to name a few.
Games: Journey, Assassin's Creed Revelations and Dead Space 3 are my top choices in this category.
I also use some of Google's Play Music channels like Trappy Instrumentals, Soft Trap Beats, Downtempo Instrumentals and Classic Ambient.
Brain Fm
Brain.fm - it really gets me in the zone.
For intense focus, this is my go-to website. Best because I don't have to think about what to listen to. Their focus selections REALLY work.
Video game music
To get pumped (aka wake up): Mega Man X - Stage Select
Any Mega Man X series songs.
Or Mega Man series songs
Chiptunes!
I can't believe nobody has mentioned Bach yet. Beethoven. Mozart.
Also a big fan of Radio Dismuke -- davidgagne.net/2017/02/27/radio-di...
And, yes, the Social Network soundtrack is great.
What music I listen to depends on my mood personally. It could be Grunge, Punk, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Indie, Folk; you name it. Lately, I've been listening to a lot of the comedy playlists on Spotify.
Fleet Foxes radio on Apple Music, something like the Stranger Things soundtrack or a custom Focus playlist that I put together consisting of a lot of film scores (Deathly Hallows, Star Wars, Jane Eyre [Dario Marianelli], Winter's Bone, Doctor Who, etc.)
I like Orbital. If it has a decent beat and I can ignore what few vocals there are, it'll work. Metal is great, esp Dio-era Sabbath.
I like jazz IRL, but while coding, it demands your attention in ways that just don't work.
On any given day, a few things may be playing:
Edm keeps me in the zone been switching between two Spotify playlists:
open.spotify.com/user/hurtmeplease...
open.spotify.com/user/akhilsagar/p...
I've created several playlists, divided by genre, that I listen according to the mood:
Sometimes I also listen to noisli, or genre playlists (liked electroswing recently). I like to vary a lot, I just don't like rap/hip hop and dubstep.
It depends, I have 2 programming moods, depending on whether there are strong theoretical background to what I have to code or not (for scientific projects at school), I use classical, or a mix of punk/pop/rock/alternative
Mostly hans zimmer instrumental. also Braid Soundtrek (Downstream my fav.)
Mainly instrumental only as I don't want to lose my concentration repeating the lyrics.
Different Guitars cover do as well :)
I usually like silence if I can get it. Otherwise if I really need to concentrate I grab coffee and listen to something with bi-neural beats over youtube.
If I'm working on something that doesn't require much concentration or is boring then I listen to "The Magicians" in the background (which I've watched so many times now that it's good background noise.
Depends on the day. Today it's Jimmie Bratcher. :)
Other days it's been some mix of Hendrix, Chickenfoot, Audioslave, Joe Bonnamassa. Some times it's a bit of Ozzy and Metallica. I break out the classical from time to time.
I think the only type of music not represented in my collection is rap. Just doesn't appeal to me.
It varies for me. Most anything can work, as long as:
And for your extreme focus needs - Terraforming by Wide Eyes looping over and over and over.
I just searched on Spotify and found this playlist, which is really cool for now!
I change my preferred playlist/songs/...form time to time so sometimes I hear dubstep, or concentration music and sometimes even no music, but that's not usual
i like a variety of things classical or choir music, acoustic guitar tunes, classic rock, taylor swift, 80s...
but only if i'm coding. if i'm reading up on something, then i need silence. even violins are distracting. :)