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Musician Releases Album of Music To Code By

Posted by samzenpus on from the brian-eno dept.

itwbennett writes Music and programming go hand-in-keyboard. And now programmer/musician Carl Franklin has released an album of music he wrote specifically for use as background music when writing software. "The biggest challenge was dialing back my instinct to make real music," Franklin told ITworld's Phil Johnson. "This had to fade into the background. It couldn't distract the listener, but it couldn't be boring either. That was a particular challenge that I think most musicians would have found maddening."

10 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. That's not exactly new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't that what ambient electronica for the last twenty years has basically been? Labels like Ultimae Records has been releasing that kind of music forever. Nothing terribly new here.

    1. Re:That's not exactly new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yep. This just screams publicity stunt and at $20 it's a fucking rip-off.

      So, no thanks Carl-boy, I already have my collection of ambient, downtempo, jazz noir and classical to do my work with.

    2. Re:That's not exactly new by ClickOnThis · · Score: 4, Informative

      No demo available even? You just pay $20 and get ripped off or don't? hah!

      Carl Franklin's website has some ~30s samples of each track.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
    3. Re:That's not exactly new by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Surely I can't be the only one who finds this kind of "easy listening muzak" incredibly irritating. It sounds annoyingly bland and emotionless to me.
      Music tastes are subjective and change with the mood. There is no singular type music that'll work for more than a small fraction of all programmers.

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      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    4. Re:That's not exactly new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You can find awesome 100% FREE, community-supported ambient tracks for coding, writing and tabletop gaming here: http://tabletopaudio.com/

  2. No lyrics. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Step 1: remove lyrics.

    Beyond that, it'd be pretty easy.

  3. Guitar/Piano/Bass/Drums by pipedwho · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For anyone that wants to know what the music sounds like; it is conventional instrumental ambient music with a nice ensemble of guitar/bass/piano(synth)/drums. It sounds pretty relaxing, but it doesn't appear to be doing anything unusual like brain wave synced synthesiser swirls and crashing waves. Although some of the percussion is reminiscent of nature.

    I really like the electric guitar and synth tones he uses. Bad guitar tone and cheap sounding synths are two of my pet hates - but this music delivers quality tone, so nothing to complain about.

    Worth a listen for anyone interested.

  4. Bad marketing by De_Boswachter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've been clicking around to find a sample, and, maybe it's just me, but I didn't find any. I might buy the album if there were previews that I could listen to, but if it takes longer that 5 minutes to successfully find any, it's 100% surely not going to happen.

  5. Japanese Music by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've taken to coding with Japanese music. I don't have a clue what they're singing, so they don't interfere with the language processing in my brain.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  6. on hold with tech support by globaljustin · · Score: 4, Informative

    here is the link with samples (named after colors a bit down the page): http://mtcb.pwop.com/

    it's basically music similar to what you'd hear in an elevator or while on hold with tech support

    i encourage everyone to listen and tell me what you think...if you like it, buy it...this is one man's (correct) opinion

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett