Quote:

Original post by szecs I'm quite the opposite: I listen to progressive/trash metal, Voivod, for example. Okay, a lot of time is spent with air drumming and drooling all over the place, but I don't care. Good ambient/chilling music is not possible for me to ignore and not to pay attention to, the other shit ambients just irritate the crap out of me. I listen to good ones (Rainer Brüninghaus for example), but that means I either pay attention to the music or the code.

I think I'm pretty much like you. Since I found out, that I can code better when I'm mad about something (Yes, it's true! Coding goes on like charm then) I listen to hard music when coding.

Not much metal, but more electronic stuff like CyberGothic (Faderhead, X-Fusion, Nachtmahr) or even some Industrial (Memmaker, Xotox). Punches my brain to work [grin]

Quote:

Original post by Azul I have found I can't listen to music that is too intense or engaging when I program or do level design, I ended up distracted by it.

I often find myself listening to music with headphones only on one ear. It seems to keep half my brain stimulated with music while the other half concentrates on code.

It depends on my mood and the complexity of the code I'm working on. usually I'm listening to XM Online, either Octane which is hard rock, or the Pops channel which is classical music. I usually listen to the classical when I'm working on more difficult code. If I know the music really well, I'll 'sing along' in my head, which gets distracting.

I also have a couple stations on Pandora and Jango for hard rock and blues. Very rarely do I have no music on. I need something in the background. If it's too quiet I'll go crazy.

I had been throwing around the idea of making an album of electronic music made specifically for programming. It would have some good rhythm to keep the energy high, but nothing too intrusive that'd throw off your train of thought.

Heres a little sample if anyone wants to check it out, not professionally mixed down or anything, just some dabblings.

http://www.maketunes.com/audio/user/28092

Quote:

Original post by Azul I have found I can't listen to music that is too intense or engaging when I program or do level design, I ended up distracted by it.

Exactly the same for me. If I start to criticize or enjoy the music, I pay too much attention to it and I can't code.

That said, here's a strange one I've gotten used to running in the background:

">Megarace - Maeva

Quote:

Original post by et1337 Pandora One rocks for this! It was well worth the $30/yr for me.

Pandora does rock. So does Slacker (my preference). I think slacker has a bit more variety within the stations which can be a good thing or a bad thing.

my brain thinking...

mostly i listen to music that is hard to get into like progressive or death metal because its difficult to listen to an entire album of new tunes that you are unfamiliar with unless your occupied with something else.

if I'm doing bread and butter coding I go with dark electronic stuff.

Or nothing.

Recently stuff like

">Two steps from hell, many tracks by Hans Zimmer et al, lots of

">random

">stuff found here and there.

Previously it used to be somewhat more conservative... Hammerfall, Dragonforce, Nightwish.

And sometimes, just for sake of nostalgia and the times of late nights spent on BBSes, the

">classics of the mod scene...

Lol, to me I crack up when you say you consider Dragonforce 'more conservative'. I guess im just not into the real hard stuff. I can't listen to more than two songs by them without drumming on the walls and sweating like a maniac! I think its the video game melodies and 'powers of the unniverse' lyrics that make them so endearing for me.