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Music to Let you Concentrate

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Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#131

Post by porker »

shrikant wrote: post #103
jwr wrote: post #73

Be careful. Music engages your creative hemisphere. This doesn't matter much if what you're doing is a simple, repetitive task. But if you're trying to design or program, it might kill your ability to "think outside the box" and invent creative solutions. In my case, listening to music while programming has a very pronounced effect: I will spend 30 minutes crafting a function that will do something. The function will…

I strongly agree with this. Even if it's only ambient music (mentioned here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5872706 ), I still use it only for situations involving mundane things like documentation. Otherwise I greatly prefer silence. My SO though, is exactly the opposite. She just can't get any work done in silence, and needs relatively fast music with vocals. Although it does need to be music that she's alrea…

> I still use it only for situations involving mundane things like documentation.

I'm sorry, documentation requires less concentration?

I find (I hypothesize) that because I'm doing something which balances the hemispheres more (and requires me to get inside the head of my user) music doesn't work for documentation, it's too distracting. Programming yes, ambient works well, but writing...

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#132

Post by stevepotter »

induscreep wrote: post #39
pepr wrote: post #2

"... two out of three of people like to listen to music while they work, study or read but it’s difficult to find and manage music that consistently works well for this purpose." Precisely! I like to listen to ambient music when working and constantly trying to find new music for this purpose is quite a hassle.

Look at some of the SomaFM radio stations...high quality ad-free streams across a variety of genres including ambient

Big fan of SomaFM for work. They have some great xmas stations that come out in December, if you like. SomaFM did stress me out a bit with their constant requests for donations. They made it sound like they were being shut down any day, yet they're still here. I donated, by the way. Didn't stop the cries for help though.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#133

Post by pyre »

antihero wrote: post #88

I've always found myself to be most productive when listening to repetitive electronic music - it motivates but also doesn't distract you too much. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUAAVUKk6Fc - it's rather seedy and excellent in it's own right. Two Lone Swordsmen is okay, too. Another good one is soundtracks - personally I like futuristic stuff (Deus Ex: HR soundtrack, or Mass Effect, or Person of Interest),…

  | Deus Ex: HR soundtrack
I went through a phase where I would just listen to the closing credits theme on loop.

Another electronic / soundtrack that I have spent a lot of time with is the Tron Legacy soundtrack.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#134

Post by antimagic »

jwr wrote: post #73

Be careful. Music engages your creative hemisphere. This doesn't matter much if what you're doing is a simple, repetitive task. But if you're trying to design or program, it might kill your ability to "think outside the box" and invent creative solutions. In my case, listening to music while programming has a very pronounced effect: I will spend 30 minutes crafting a function that will do something. The function will…

For me, the key is to not listen to new music whilst trying to do creative work. If I'm listening to an album that I have been listening to for the last 6 months, it can be the perfect foil to the incredibly noisy open plan offices I have worked in for the last 15 years of my career (managers, for goodness sake please stop making open plan offices!)

Nothing beats the overriding hum of a server room though - Pure white noise at loud enough volumes that you can't talk easily with other people. Stick some ear plugs in to dampen the volume a little, and you're set to go.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#135

Post by pyre »

b0rsuk wrote: post #120

Once upon a time Red Alert (1), one of first RTS games, won Game Music of the Year award from multiple magazines. I was initially a bit puzzled by it: there's nothing in the music that immediately jumps at you as great. It's nice, it resembles Nine Inch Nails in some places, that's it. But then I noticed I can listen to it for extended lengths of time without problem. It's relatively subtle, and it grows on you. It d…

Slight off-topic, but reminded me of this:

http://dustincurtis.com/how-mr-q-manufactured-emotion.html

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#136

Post by jvdh »

JonnieCache wrote: post #85
rednukleus wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you recommend a Top 5 ambient albums for working? EDIT: Thanks for all the suggestions!

76:14 by Global Communication is an undisputed classic of the genre, however you might find it distracting because it's so good. And of course there's Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 85-92, which should go without saying really. Again, you might not be able to work because it's such a good record. Also, it's not ambient in the sense of having no beats. If you've never heard it before you should probably just stop…

Thank you very much for your suggestions!

I've bundled them together in a Grooveshark playlist: http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Work+Ambient/87531575

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#137

Post by antoncohen »

swah wrote: post #107
antoncohen wrote: post #59

Coffitivity works well for me, it's not music, it's ambient noise http://www.coffitivity.com/

But... isn't this exactly like the sound I'm trying to block (coworkers talking!) ? :) [edit] I just read on their page that their theory is "It's pretty hard to be creative in a quiet space". So while I like the "hotel lobbby" feel for some kinds of work, I disagree that silence is bad. OTOH, this might work for me because I can't parse engilsh that well.

No, coworkers walking is distracting because I can hear and understand what they are saying. My mind gets interested and will try to listen. For me it's the same with music that has pronounced lyrics.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#138

Post by angersock »

b0rsuk wrote: post #120

Once upon a time Red Alert (1), one of first RTS games, won Game Music of the Year award from multiple magazines. I was initially a bit puzzled by it: there's nothing in the music that immediately jumps at you as great. It's nice, it resembles Nine Inch Nails in some places, that's it. But then I noticed I can listen to it for extended lengths of time without problem. It's relatively subtle, and it grows on you. It d…

The SimCity4 soundtrack is really awesome for just hacking away at things. I think that the Red Alert soundtrack is one of the best "get shit done" albums I've had in my box for a while, even with the amazingly cheesy synths and 90s style. The Descent and System Shock 2 soundtracks were very much in this vein (SS1 was procedurally generated, so it's hit or miss).

I think the big trick is that game music is meant to get you thinking and active, but not distract you.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#139

Post by angersock »

tripzilch wrote: post #126
antihero wrote: post #88

I've always found myself to be most productive when listening to repetitive electronic music - it motivates but also doesn't distract you too much. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUAAVUKk6Fc - it's rather seedy and excellent in it's own right. Two Lone Swordsmen is okay, too. Another good one is soundtracks - personally I like futuristic stuff (Deus Ex: HR soundtrack, or Mass Effect, or Person of Interest),…

> I've always found myself to be most productive when listening to repetitive electronic music - it motivates but also doesn't distract you too much. Yup, goa-trance for me :) Music with a lot of lyrics is most distracting to me, though I've found it also depends on the particular way the vocals are mixed/mastered, on some albums they're much harder to ignore than others. Lyrics in my native tongue (Dutch) are hardes…

If you like goa and whatnot, these folks have some good free tracks scattered across different electronic genres:

http://www.ektoplazm.com/

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#140

Post by kunai »

jwr wrote: post #73

Be careful. Music engages your creative hemisphere. This doesn't matter much if what you're doing is a simple, repetitive task. But if you're trying to design or program, it might kill your ability to "think outside the box" and invent creative solutions. In my case, listening to music while programming has a very pronounced effect: I will spend 30 minutes crafting a function that will do something. The function will…

I think it depends on the type of music you listen to. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uCL1_YcRwk is always able to get me to stop thinking about other things and concentrate on the task at hand. I notice I do much, much better on exams when I listen to music (esp. jazz) while I'm studying; perhaps it blocks out all other thoughts, focusing my attention on the core material that is really required for maximum productivity and retention.
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