Ask DN: What do you listen to when designing
6 years ago from William Channer, Co-founder of Panda
Looking for new music to check out whilst designing, any suggestions?
6 years ago from William Channer, Co-founder of Panda
Looking for new music to check out whilst designing, any suggestions?
I built Noon Pacific (www.noonpacific.com) to share music with my designer friends and family. Let me know if you give it a listen!
nice!
Thanks Ernst!
Nice. Beautifully curated!
Thank you!
Been listening for months now, great stuff on there. Found a lot of good artists.
Appreciate you listening!
Big fan. Can I please throw out a request for Last.fm scrobbling?
For sure. I've had a few requests for that so I'll be looking into how to add that in over the holidays. Thanks for checking it out.
Nice! I listen to NP every Monday.
awesome to hear that, thanks Eric.
Mostly metal
Kendrick Lamar
DN HH.
I make loops in Ableton and listen to them on repeat.
Tycho, boards of canada, Monument Valley soundtrack, and anything that autoplays after that (rdio).
<3 Boards of Canada. You should check out Kodomo as well ;)
Added it to the list. Gonna listen when I get home.
Thanks for taking the time to tell me that! =)
No prob, enjoy!
If you like Tycho and Boards of Canada, check out:
Music threads are fun!
Ah cheers for that! Just made a new playlist with the recommendations from you guys. Awesome! Thanks! =)
Probably not the most common genres (metal, post-rock, ...): - Primordial's Where Great Men Have Fallen - Year of No Light's Ausserwelt - Russian Circles' 309 - Pelican's Forever Becoming
I need my music loud to get the job done ;)
I store my library on Amazon Music so I have access to my playlists on all my devices.
SLAMMIN.
I'm not really a designer but this is my answer, too.
OST: Interestellar, Les Miserables, Doctor Who... very epic!
same here!!! Love soundtracks!!!
I listen to various progressive trance playlists on Spotify. Trance isn't distracting and I find that it increases my efficiency when designing as it's fast paced and uplifting to listen to - http://www.arminradio.com/
+1. Same here. =)
Mostly OSTs. I maintain a playlist on Spotify if you're interested: Scores and Soundtracks
I really love listening to Silverstein, Deftones, Funeral for a friend and The Amity Affliction when I start a project.
Then, when I need more relax and find ways to improve what I have done, I start listening to Sigur Ros, Bon Iver, Anathema, Bombay Bicycle Club, and some OST.
Cheers!
+1 for Funeral for a friend & Amity Afflication & also Silverstein. I could never get into Deftones minus a couple songs.
+1 for Silverstein and The Amity Affliction. Good to see I'm not the only one listening to "scary screamo music" as everyone calls it haha.
Great to hear that, hi-5 bro ;)
Old school hiphop mainly http://open.spotify.com/user/1110918398/playlist/6FTmrfcuH5yrufE3wbTgdH
Kygo remixes always seem to come up while I design. He's blowing up right now: https://soundcloud.com/kygo/ed-sheeran-i-see-fire-kygo
The soundtrack to The Social Network is pretty low key (so not distracting), but makes your work feel epic. You might not believe it till you try it -- Spotify URL
Com Truise
Mike Will Made It, Juicy J, 2 Chainz
MY DOGG
I mostly listen to electronic music, generally without the vocals cause it helps you focus better.
Here are some examples : Armin Van Buuren - A State Of Trance Above & Beyond - Group Therapy Anjunabeats Volume 11
Some Spotify playlists I like :) - Electronic Concentration - Creativiy Boost - Electronic Study Music
Mostly metal/hard rock or classics like Zeppelin , The Stones, or Hendrix. Being a guitarist myself I typically listen to guitar driven music.
Good to mention here https://designers.mx/:)
Me, I listen Standup Comedy, Podcasts, new albums on Spotify. Also, this well designed website : http://postrocktu.es/
BTW, I'm actually working on a companion app for a sound system that allows you to create collaborative playlists with upvotes.
I find movie soundtracks are the best. Anything from The Dark Knight to the Assassination of Jesse James and The Social Network anything that makes an impact on me when at the cinema.
If i'm i'm not in that mood then Bonobo, Alt-J, RJD2 or some classic Jazz generally hit the spot .
I don't really like Dream Theater...but I've found that I'm shockingly productive when I put some Dream Theater on Spotify when I'm designing.
Sometimes I listen to audiobooks (audible.com), video game soundtracks, but I mostly prefer silence.
Music I listen to while designing - Tycho - Neon Indian - The Postal Service - RAC - Daft Punk - Emancipator - Little People - Lemaitre - Parachutes - Ludovico Einaudi - YACHT - Phantogram
I also listen to some podcasts - 99% Invisible - The Truth - Hello Internet - Accidental Tech Podcast - Iterate - Debug - On The Grid - Song Exploder - We Have Concerns - This is Only a Test
Am I the only designer who listens to 90's Hardcore?
Brahms
"Opalescent" album by Jon Hopkins. Amazing chillout for deep focus.
Garage pop.
Early Tycho, Kraftwerk, Radio Deepmix, Boards of Canada, Dimmu Borgir.
About 50% of the time it is either the Solid Steel or We Funk podcasts. I have three years of the former and ~180 of the latter.
The remaining time is split amongst whatever is on my phone.
Solid Steel I pull off of soundcloud. We Funk has a nice streaming app on their website.
//solidsteel.net/ //www.wefunkradio.com/radio/
Mostly my Focus playlist on shuffle. Lots of nu disco type electronic stuff that makes me bob my head mindlessly while chugging along for hours.
http://open.spotify.com/user/jolsen802/playlist/0dSh6hPtn139px0LQNH78Q
I listen to my "Electronic Study Music with No Words" playlist on Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/user/jshariat/playlist/3Qc4iY6n352nayiSMnDfBQ
Generally metal/heavy stuff, with some occasional pop. Swedish metal is amazing for productivity, I get so much done while listening to Soilwork and Arch Enemy. No idea why, but it never fails!
I do all my listening on Spotify, that way I don't have to actually put my music on my work computer. I listen to 5-6 hours of music a day on average.
Fleshgod Apocalypse? :)
Plenty of stuff in that vein too, haha. Sometimes I just need 200bpm blast beats and ridiculous double bass to get my developer juices flowing. Especially on a Monday.
This playlist:
http://open.spotify.com/user/tylerfowler/playlist/4wY9p2dmZKeTDb7aBrk5on
It's basically just the alternative rock songs that I like (there are 894 tracks) that I add as I find them. But lately I really like to work to Fashion House, which I also have a playlist for.
http://open.spotify.com/user/tylerfowler/playlist/29l7z4yoU9uL4fFTwhOEdu
podcasts - the dollop is a new favourite
Panda Bear
Video game music on loop! I'm playing Persona Q right now with the Persona 4 hero, and I'm currently obsessed with the battle music: http://whyd.com/c/547c91bd1de5648d3c64df31
My best results come when I mix it up. On day it will be Pink Floyd all day but the next could be all DNB. Sometimes for me it depends on the project also since your mood is set by the music you listen to, you will see it sometimes come out in your designs.
This week I've been mostly listening to The Ventures Christmas album.
http://open.spotify.com/album/1dxDyvTNQvo04bBdPJnjur
it is awesome
I listen to a couple of BBC radio shows via iPlayer, then fill in the gaps with electronic music via Spotify. usually that's of the minimal techno genre, such as Modeselektor. I find it really helps me focus.
Some time ago I wrote a web-app for me which I made public.
Right now - Deep Space House https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9iyHC1Tno0&list=UUl7-226L3v1-8MIJ0h6t_dg
We constantly have Spotify running at the office and everyone is free to select what they want to share with the rest of us. As a Christmas treat, we selected a few of the most played tracks and compiled a playlist (I shared it on here before): https://news.layervault.com/stories/40381-from-us-to-you--the-2014-playlist
If i'm thinking, instrumental dance/drum and bass/atmospheric stuff on Sounddrop or Soundcloud, as well as old favourites like Pendulum, Daft Punk, Aphex Twin, Orbital, Squarepusher.
If I'm doing more mindless stuff, I listen to podcasts - currently enjoying Utility Fog (experimental music), Philosophy Bites (quite accessible philosophy interviews) and By Design.
Tycho, bonobo, ta-ku, list is endless though.
Add "dayveh" on Spotify if these people are your jam :)
Deep house, dub techno like this: https://soundcloud.com/deuz_kane
I listen to a ton of music on Spotify. Like...81,000+ hours this year.
Some of my favorites for designing are:
Creative by Jeremy Duhr: http://open.spotify.com/user/m--e/playlist/4WOOVjtpgaj9EqQnooPs21
Drawing by Kasian Arte: http://open.spotify.com/user/119441129/playlist/04t04K0pRBuM110h6dcklb
Chill Lounge by patrolbm: http://open.spotify.com/user/spotifanspoti/playlist/3tmLP2qSuwrAYVtQofe2ES
And if its 3am at a designathon: 90s Eurodance by Spotify Norway http://open.spotify.com/user/spotify_norway_/playlist/4XgBXx4IzPjG5bkmQOabmQ
I'm also working on my own playlist, called Flow. Which I think works for design, homework, whatever. Would love to hear (ha) what you think. http://open.spotify.com/user/nickwittwer/playlist/4jrc2EcwkaLRaAPpMSkC8d
Classic Jazz or Chill/Deep House. Jazz.fm, Ministry of Sound radios.
I follow a lot of artists on Soundcloud so I like to go through my Stream for any new cool stuff. Soundcloud is really good for electronic music.
Spotify has some decent playlists they put together.
Sometimes I listen to sports talk radio because it's pretty mindless and I don't have to focus on it. :) Or Howard Stern! bababooey
If I have to write I listen to the "brown noise" at simplynoise.com to drown out the talking around my desk.
Huge fan of Rooster Teeth, and they just started a partnership with Slacker Radio that has songs that are influential/mentioned to/by them, as well as short bits by cast & crew. Been listening to it during all my work for the past few days, and I really like it. http://www.slacker.com/station/rooster-teeth-i-am-the-dj
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