[ctdonath]

Music possessing these qualities can often provide just the right amount of interest to occupy the parts of your brain that would otherwise be left free to wander and lead to distraction during your work.

Finally - someone who recognizes that there's a curious & busy part of the brain which must be kept preoccupied during complex tasks, and mixes music just for that purpose.

"Trance" music podcasts are a great approximation for this. (See "The Vocal Trance", "Above & Beyond: Trance Around The World", "The Perfect Mix", "Push The Night", "Perfecto Podcast", "The Sound of Trance", "Shakedown Podcast")

ETA: Alas, too many managers don't understand this; they think you're getting distracted by the music, and can't comprehend that it is necessary to facilitate focus.

[emillon]

> Finally - someone [...] mixes music just for that purpose.

DJ Bolivia has been quite known for his "Music to code by" mixes, I definitely recommend them.

http://djbolivia.blogspot.com/2011/04/music-to-code-by-volum...

[ANH]

Good stuff. Started playing it, wasn't sure at first, then started working and was immediately in that other place where things get done.

But now I'm reading Hacker News.

[djbolivia]

Emillon, thanks. Some of those Music To Code By mixes have a fair amount of vocals though. I think nowadays, a lot of coders would prefer my weekly radio show at www.chma.fm.

The drawback with the radio show is that each episode has a 25 to 60 second promo tape at the intro, but after that it's all music, no advertising, and I don't do voiceovers. I'd recommend episodes starting at about #070 - I was still trying to find a groove in the first seventy, and I only stopped doing an intro voiceover in the early 70's.

They're also on SoundCloud (I just archived them all starting a few weeks ago) so you can skip around easily if you need to: http://www.soundcloud.com/djbolivia

[emillon]

Nice, I'll check those out !

I listened to the first episodes but for some reason I preferred your former mixes. Let's see how the latest episodes are doing :)

[djbolivia]

They are definitely a bit darker, more tech-house. I guess the style changes within each show, but from show to show it's consistent. The first half of each show is generally low-key tech-house, but then I start speeding it up a small amount and using more "busy" progressive house tracks later in the episode. But not many vocals in each. Some people will like these better (the sound quality is also better), but some coders will definitely prefer the six older "Music To Code" By mixes.

[runevault]

Just grabbed these and started the first track for while I work from home (go go Denver snow) and I'm really digging it. Thanks for the pointer.

[X-Istence]

Yay snow! Currently stuck at home in Littleton :P

[Arjuna]

This is a super netlabel for the trance listener: http://www.ektoplazm.com

All of their music is released under a Creative Commons license for non-commercial purposes. They offer a wide variety of trance genres, including Goa, Progressive, Psychedelic, Uplifting, etc. Plus, all music can be downloaded in FLAC, WAV and MP3 formats.

[leon_]

yo mon. this is the shit! love ektoplazm.

[msutherl]

As a DJ/producer, I have a professional obligation to loathe trance music, but I can't deny that it's just the perfect thing for programming.

Some of my favorite balearic stuff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdhIwGZxtLA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTODkLro8gs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-p_Ihm95KQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyTRd8A7pm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl2SOwjx5Vc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=surw1-iXmR0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsEY0OLv_Y4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uRTjooOnsc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXb0y9yws4c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQsEOUArwJA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtCOxFvDCFo

[BurnZeZ]

As a musician, I love it. That's probably half due to roughly 70% of my songs ending up as trance by the time I'm done though. What is it about it that you dislike exactly?

[msutherl]

Let me be clear: I have no issue with trance as a form (highly repetitive 140 bpm 4/4 dance music). But trance music as a scene since the mid-90's has been characterized by melodramatic, over-produced, formulaic and not forward-thinking music. It's akin to being a filmmaker and disliking plotless Hollywood action films.

These days there's a lot of innovative and interesting dance music coming out in the wake of dub step. I tend to play stuff like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbj6iVyIgAI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH4GIL1wYWo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHweamNAkjY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUYQTPhPJZE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34GJld5OmiE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH_Ondi_ojA

Music with new ideas, character and soul. Unfortunately interesting music sometimes demands a little too much attention when you're trying to code!

[BurnZeZ]

"melodramatic, over-produced, formulaic and not forward-thinking music"

Haha. I do see much of that. Although I can't say it's always bad. What's your take on this track? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U80l-YzcGsQ

Liking this stuff you linked. I know what you mean by some music being too attention-grabbing to listen to while coding though.

[msutherl]

I don't know, it's compelling and I do have soft spot for this kind of stuff, but I find it as "melodramatic, over-produced [and] formulaic" as anything on Anjuna. Sometimes I'm in the mood for that, but it doesn't satisfy me at all intellectually. It's like candy: tastes good while you're eating it, but doesn't feed the body like food or the soul like a warm cup of tea. I think in this analogy, programming music should be like gum or a cinnamon stick!

[BurnZeZ]

Thanks for the response. I was hoping you would slap it with the labels you mentioned earlier. It means I'm not crazy! I like the analogy as well.

Thanks for the replies, and the music. Have a good one.

[daydream]

I'm 7 days late and I doubt you'll ever see this, but thank you for that Andy Stott youtube vid. I'm a big fan of the folks doing more fractured/cracked/drone stuff (Burial/Gas/Basic Channel/etc), I've never heard of Stott, and this stuff is easily up there with the best.

Bravo sir or madam!

[Tossrock]

For a quick intro, just tune to di.fm's trance channel. They have a lot of great trance radio shows; Global DJ Broadcast with Markus Schulz, A State of Trance with Armin Van Buuren, the aforementioned Trance Around The World, Global Trance Grooves with John 00 Fleming, etc.

For easily downloadable podcasts, Sander van Doorn's Identity (although he's leaning more electro these days), The Gareth Emery Podcast, and Global Trance Grooves are good ones.

[ajtaylor]

I second this. di.fm is playing for about half my work day, and often when I'm at home too. I love the Trance and Vocal Trance channels, with forays into EuroClub, DubStep and Chillout Dreams.

[Karunamon]

di.fm has a lot of really good content. Highly recommend any trance channel (I like the classic vocal best) and their Chiptune channel.

[gren]

totally agreed. I've been listening to di.fm and Armin Van Buuren week shows for 5 years.

[jasonkostempski]

Trance/Ambient stuff drives me nuts. For the longest time it jaded my view of electronic music because I thought it defined it. I prefer faster beats, well structured complex melodies a la Skrillex http://soundcloud.com/skrillex/sets. The first few listens might be a little distracting but once I know the songs I find myself typing like I'm playing the song with my keyboard.

[mhitza]

While I'm not that fond on the Trance/Ambient combination, there is out there trance with faster beats and more complex melodies (albeit not sure if we commonly share what more complex means).

Take a sample playlist of mine http://grooveshark.com/playlist/Trance/63694608

[ponzi]

I liked your playlist. Thanks!

[Tossrock]

> I prefer faster beats, well structured complex melodies a la Skrillex

Skrillex and dubstep in general typically has a lower BPM than Trance. Skrillex usually works in the 120s, whereas trance is usually in the 130s-140s. You seem to be lumping trance and ambient together; however, they're quite different! I would argue that trance typically has more complex melodies than dubstep, which focuses more on tambre variations (ie crazy bass distortion). If you want to hear a cool trance track with high BPM and a nice complex melody, check out Duke Can't Come Home by Oza: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA9If-QkXQk As with all electronic music, you kind of have to sit through the first 32 bars or so for it to get to the good part; these parts of songs are really only there so that DJs can mix them together more easily.

[dannytatom]

As Tossrock, dubstep is usually a pretty slow BPM. I'm a fan of fast myself and usually listen to a lot of DNB & breakcore (up to 190bpm), you might enjoy it.

http://www.last.fm/tag/dnb http://www.last.fm/tag/breakcore

[noonespecial]

Oceanlab - Sirens Of The Sea Remixed is my goto.

Its like a ticket to the zone.

http://www.aboveandbeyond.nu/oceanlab-sirens-of-the-sea-remi...

[joelg87]

I find myself playing this one very regularly on Spotify, it really is like a ticket to the zone.

[dogas]

I might as well plug my buddy's site:

http://trance-mixes.com

Very nice site, well put together.

[brey]

oh, this is good. just what I've been looking for.

[trafficlight]

The Digitally Imported trance channel is pretty good.

http://di.fm

[kellishaver]

I realized today that I've been listening to the same playlist 203 songs for about a year now. It usually plays all day long. I'm kind of bored with it when I'm actually paying attention to it and want to listen to music, but it's great for programming. The songs are so well known to me at this point that I don't really consciously think about them. My brain just kind of sings along without me while I write code.

[xxpor]

What kind of manager doen't let you listen to music?

[freehunter]

I'm not a programmer, I work in information security (monitor/response) but I've experienced something similar. My manager listens to music/podcasts, most of my coworkers do as well, but when someone from another team walks by, they assume we're doing nothing based on comments I've heard, "you have headphones in, obviously you're not busy". No, I'm just trying to concentrate. Thanks for interrupting with your smartass remark.

[jonstjohn]

"there's a curious & busy part of the brain which must be kept preoccupied during complex tasks" this is so true - I've found, besides listening to music, I can actual half-listen to lectures/talks while I program, and concentrate considerably better than in quiet. Counter-intuitive but works really well.

[joejohnson]

I couldn't agree more about the Trance podcasts. It's great that these podcasts have no breaks (mixing each song into the next). Music like that with a good beat and lots of crescendos/decrescendos can be ideal for tuning out everything around me and staying focused for a long period of time.

[kstenerud]

You can also get good stuff on TT in the Trance Out room.

[bengl3rt]

Anything by Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto puts me all the way in the zone.

[minikomi]

Was going to post the same! Lovely, hypnotic and minimal.

[jvoorhis]

Just read this after posting http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3550443.

And I thought my Raster-Noton habit put me in the minority!

[demallien]

I personally am a big fan of a couple of the radio stations in the 'Ambient' section in iTunes. A big shout out for DroneZone, although anything from SomaFM is pretty good.

[varunsrin]

I find progressive trance great music to work to - some great artists in this genre are Ace Ventura, Gaudium, Lish, Zen Mechanics & Space Buddha.

[NARKOZ]

Yes, these podcasts are like Mozart. There are no many words in them, so they're not distracting.