DEV Community

Jake Wiesler
Jake Wiesler

Posted on

Deep Work and Music - What are some of your favorite artists / songs / playlists when working?

Would love to get more variety in what I'm listening to. I struggle with any audio that has lyrics, so most of what I listen to falls into the categories:

  • lofi
  • classical
  • instrumental

But I do enjoy some upbeat techno when I'm in a groove. Usually when I'm trying to figure out a difficult problem I opt for silence first.

Curious to hear how everyone else approaches audio when working?

Top comments (2)

Collapse
 
scsmash3r profile image
Eugene Esca • Edited

For last years I've composed my music list by intensity of the musical composition. Here are some examples of long mixes and brief description:

🔈 Calm mode, for maximum concentration and minimum distraction:

#codemood_1 - usually it is an atmospheric or environment sounds, without actual music (i.e. sound of heavy rain or campfire cracking)

#codemood_2 - very calm music, where atmosphere still prevails (wind, rain). Suitable for intense code sessions where you need to concentrate or for sleep :)

#codemood_3 - same as #2, but here music prevails over environmental sounds.

#codemood_4 - atmospheric music with minimal 'dark' mood (less calm than #3, but still not as spooky as #5)

#codemood_5 - dark sounds like ambient drone / lovecraftian (this won't be suitable for most of coders, I think, because this sound can be really 'ear-stressful'. Best reference: Atrium Carceri). Also here goes calm postrock (solo guitar, solo piano).

🔉 Standard mode: flow, intensive, when you can allow yourself to 'code-wander' around:

#codemood_6 - tavern/feast atmosphere, medieval, adventurous spirit (medieval fantasy). Best reference: Skyrim, World of Warcraft, LOTR. Some YT channel authors have great compilations of 1hr in-game ambience+music or just ambience mixes. That's the ones I use most of the time.

#codemood_7 - electronic, hasteless downtempo or psychill, cosmic deeps + drums. Best reference: Connect.Ohm, Carbon Based Lifeforms, Astronaut Ape, Kalpataru Tree.

#codemood_8 - cybernetic utopia, 'enter the matrix', synthetic electronica; cyberpunk hole, more intensity.

My personal favs here, goes really well anytime:

🔊 Hyperactive mode: to avoid falling for sleep when you have 5-10 hours flow; for peppy code, for doing layout where you don't need to work with deep code abstractions:

#codemood_9 - usually postrock or lively psytrance, where guitar/synth/drums prevail in one tonality. Also here goes funk, funky breaks, trip-hop or lo-fi.

Personal fav in this category:

#codemood_10 - the very heavy posion. Best reference: The Prodigy, 3D Stas, Mick Gordon, Pendulum, Zardonic and so on.

Collapse
 
rifath profile image
Rifat hossain

STUDIO GHIBLI JAZZ music, Chiptunes, guns and roses, daft punk instrumental