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Music to Let you Concentrate

focusatwill.com

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Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#181

Post by kps »

moultano wrote: post #177
kps wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer silence, but since the open-plan fad holds sway here, I've found rain to be the most effective substitute. The best rain track I've found so far is 57 at http://archive.org/details/Sounds_of_Nature_Collection

Check out gordon hempton: http://soundtracker.com/ He makes fantastic binaural nature recordings. The advantage of binaural recordings is that they have an amazing feeling of "space" so that you forget that you are wearing headphones and that you aren't sitting in a forest. I've made some of my own as well. https://soundcloud.com/moultano

Very nice — I'm working to your Fall Creek right now (my code's compiling). Do you use a commercial dummy head or something less costly?

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#182

Post by moultano »

kps wrote: post #181
moultano wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out gordon hempton: http://soundtracker.com/ He makes fantastic binaural nature recordings. The advantage of binaural recordings is that they have an amazing feeling of "space" so that you forget that you are wearing headphones and that you aren't sitting in a forest. I've made some of my own as well. https://soundcloud.com/moultano

Very nice — I'm working to your Fall Creek right now (my code's compiling). Do you use a commercial dummy head or something less costly?

I salivated over a dummy head for years until I found this: http://3diosound.com/ All of these were recorded with the original model of it.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#183

Post by quesera »

dhimes wrote: post #124
quesera wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [1] I think this is called 'brown noise' these days. Yikes. What terrible branding! "Green noise" is better, sort of honest, and obvious.

They are engineering terms, not marketing terms. The 'colors' are to give you an analogy of sound frequencies in the spectrum: White is a blend of all (audio) frequencies with equal intensities; with pink noise, the intensity falls off at higher frequencies (1/f), and with brown noise the intensity falls off faster at higher frequencies (1/f^2).

Sorry, I actually knew that -- I spent a few years of my life building production studios and doing audible spectrum tests.

Cheap humor though, I apologize.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#184

Post by ajasmin »

michael_h wrote: post #118
dhimes wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, 'white noise' - type sounds- sounds of rainfall, waves, etc. [1]- help me focus. I usually work with nothing, bu one day when working in a noisy environment I discovered that putting headphones on and listening to 'sound of nature' tracks worked very well. So well, in fact, that now when I get stuck or am just having trouble focusing for any reason I do this. [1] I think this is called 'brown noise' these day…

I use: sox -r 48000 -n -d synth pink with noise canceling headphones and a relatively low volume. I also tend to listen to: sox -n -d synth sine %-5 sine %-14 vol 0.5 ...but everyone else seems to think it's incredibly annoying.

Stupid question: Is it necessary to play something through a pair of noise canceling headphones if you just want to "cancel noise" with them?

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#185

Post by kamaal »

kps wrote: post #153
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 prefer silence, but since the open-plan fad holds sway here, I've found rain to be the most effective substitute. The best rain track I've found so far is 57 at http://archive.org/details/Sounds_of_Nature_Collection

When exposed to noise for prolonged periods of time, sometime in the middle noise becomes silence. You don't feel there is noise, unless some turns it off or increases/decreases a little.

Its called conditioning the mind.

Its a bit like the right pane in eclipse, In years I never remember using it even once, yet its absence will irritate me.

Ever get that feeling sometimes when you are surrounded by people in a noisy place and yet after sometime sort of don't even feel that is disturbance.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#186

Post by ajtaylor »

wojt_eu wrote: post #25
rjd wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thrash metal for me, no idea why it works for me but it does. Oddly enough I'm not really a fan of it while I'm not working.

Yes yes! I'm a fan of Metallica but I can only listen Kill'em'All while programming. Either that or repetitive ambient/instrumental/chill-out without vocals.

Kill 'Em All works well for me too. I know all the other songs far too well to not listen to them and try to sing along in my head.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#187

Post by mhartl »

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),…

*its own right

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#188

Post by jdonnici »

ajasmin wrote: post #184
michael_h wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use: sox -r 48000 -n -d synth pink with noise canceling headphones and a relatively low volume. I also tend to listen to: sox -n -d synth sine %-5 sine %-14 vol 0.5 ...but everyone else seems to think it's incredibly annoying.

Stupid question: Is it necessary to play something through a pair of noise canceling headphones if you just want to "cancel noise" with them?

Not with the ones I'm familiar with (Bose QC-15). You have to turn the headphones on to engage the 'active' noise cancellation, but you don't have to be listening to anything. In fact, you can unplug the cable from the ear piece completely and still hear (not hear?) the effect.

Re: Music to Let you Concentrate

#189

Post by jmah »

kps wrote: post #153
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 prefer silence, but since the open-plan fad holds sway here, I've found rain to be the most effective substitute. The best rain track I've found so far is 57 at http://archive.org/details/Sounds_of_Nature_Collection

There are some great hour-long ambient recordings at http://whitenoisemp3s.com
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