Background Noise or Silence?

[Gowienczyk]

Perhaps this topic has been done, but it was on my mind and I thought I'd bring it up while I'm working off and on my third draft of Tromania. But, back to the subject matter:

Mapmakers, General Artists and you folk. Do you prefer to have silence when working or background noise. For me it's the latter. For example, I'm currently listening to A Desolation Song at this moment. It's giving me some decent background motivation and it's helping me push along.

But what about you?

[ravells]

I'm a silence person.

[Steel General]

I prefer music in the background, when possible. It doesn't have to be loud, just enough so I can hear it.

[Gowienczyk]

I prefer music in the background, when possible. It doesn't have to be loud, just enough so I can hear it.

I prefer when it's distant when I'm working, to be honest.

[Gamerprinter]

The music is in my head and I can't get it out!!!

Naw, I work in silence - I can't hear me talking to myself with that damn music on, wait what did I say... damn music.

GP

[xv43]

I tend to put a television show from hulu on and work with that in the background.

When I was younger, we had an experiment in a class where we took timed math tests once with silence and once with the person next to you talking at you the entire time... it was supposed to show us the value of doing your homework without distractions, but I actually did better with the person talking at me

[Turgenev]

I voted for background noise (music or TV) but I've been known to work to both. It all depends on my mood at the time and if I'm too lazy to change the CD/DVD/Record that was playing.

[Midgardsormr]

I like a little bit of "white noise," but nothing coherent. If there's music playing, I tend to listen to it, and that distracts me from what I'm doing. TV is even worse. I do often have a solitaire game or a web page open when I'm working on the computer, though, so I can give my brain and my eyes a rest from time to time. I just have to be careful not to switch over to it too often, or I never get anything done.

[Redrobes]

I don't get the choice usually !

@Midgard
I am a bit of a Jean Michel Jarre fan and he does a variety of stuff some of which is great and other is - lets be frank here - total rubbish. But the good makes up for the bad in spades. Anyway, there is an album he did called "Waiting for Cousteau" which was almost universally lambasted and when I heard it first I though how bad it is. Apart from a few (pretty naff) tracks one (the filler as far as I can tell) is basically a 45 minute track of synth scuba bubbly noises with not much going on. Well I found a great use for it when I put it on revising for exams and such. Unnoticed by me I had great attention span but as soon as the track ended it went silent and then all the background noise kicks in which invariably is songs with a beat, TV programs, sirens, ect - i.e. all stuff which is well distracting again. So there's my top tip.

[Ascension]

For my real work I design and make stained glass windows. There I select the proper music to set the mood for me to help me get the look I want. I put on my headphones and get lost for a few hours...Mozart always gives me swirly looking things and Beethoven gives me bold things and rock/metal gives me new ideas to apply to the standard stuff. When it's time to put a window together I listen to CNN or History Channel. At home where I draw for fun I turn on some sporting event every night and listen to the TV (rather than watch it) as I draw/map/game 'cuz I already know what I'm going to do and am just relaxing. In both cases, when I get stumped and really need to think my way through things I need the quiet.