QotW: Do you have an environmental companion in your studio while you work?

[Pres]

I still haven't gotten any new additions to the QotW listing, so I will once again pose one of my own. This has been asked before in different ways, but I will ask again: Do you have an environmental companion in your studio while you work?

For me it has been old westerns on television in the studio. Old tv series, old movies, etc. I know almost everyone of them so don't have to pay attention, and when that great line comes up. . . I chime out! However, of late I have been looking at streaming of sorts, maybe using wifi to use something like Spotify or some other streamer to get in music, and not use the TV. Not sure, but possibly as I have seen several albums that are mood/quiet, and some that are classical guitar etc. Might be a new thing for me. May have to extend the house wifi out to the shop, but no big deal, I am capable of messing with a bit of that. 

So Do you have an environmental companion in your studio while you work?

 

 

best,

Pres

[Denice]

Like you I have a TV that I watch movies for shows that I have seen before.  I listen and don't have to watch,  I also have a boom box that I play when I am tired of the television.   On the weekends when my husband is in his workshop,  we tune it to the same oldies station and rock on.    If I don't have a environmental companion I hear all of the pops and bangs the house is making and my house makes some loud noises that worry me.   Denice

[PotterPutter]

Music via Alexa.  I can tell her to play whatever I'm in the mood for without having to touch anything. Very helpful during throwing.

Edited April 10, 2018 by PotterPutter

[Gabby]

Until about ten years ago, I usually played oldies as background to almost anything I was doing- work, leisure reading, driving, anything. 

Then I got a bulldog puppy who, when she napped, snored like a 300 pound guy.  Bullies sleep a lot, and one can hear it throughout the house. It was a beautiful sound. I used to say she was the Pavarotti of snoring. She was beautiful to look at also.

Since she died, I don't play music as background to anything other than driving. I prefer listening to the sounds of my old house, the street noise, the birds, and even the planes I can hear from inside.  My neighborhood is really quiet even though the homes aren't very far apart, so it is centering to hear the same sounds that have surrounded me these 30 plus years in this house.

[Mark C.]

2X 300 discs in 2 300 disc players- random play mode in house-

speakers (6 sets) two in studio  area with volume controls.

Could not work without that. 

Edited April 10, 2018 by Mark C.

[Callie Beller Diesel]

Hour long playlists on my Bluetooth headphones remind me to get up and take a break once they finish. Gin Wigmore is a current favourite, as is Larkin Poe. Mostly mixes, though. 

I do a lot of audio books lately through my library app. Those are used during times when I'm doing more mindless tasks, like wedging, reclaim, throwing and cleaning. Ilona Andrews' Kate Daniels series is a fun mix of fantasy and technology, and the characters are hilarious! Karen Marie Moning's Fever series are set in Dublin, and are reminiscent of the old Faerie tales that were bloody and frightening, and never meant for children. 

Many ADHD brains need background/white noise in order to concentrate.

Edited April 11, 2018 by Callie Beller Diesel
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[LeeU]

I like the natural surrounding sounds of everything that is making sounds--birds, insects, street movements, house noises, cheap clocks, the construction yard behind me, with big vehicles going in/out & sometimes the distant sawmill, whatever music I am playing, either single CD's or a vinyl record, or a streaming thing. I don't get reception for radio in the house (dead zone between lake/mountain ridge) so I miss the NPR that used to have to keep me company when i lived elsewhere. I  especially enjoy the companionship of the studio environment itself and all the noises, smells,  and vibrations I generate by working in it.

[Marcia Selsor]

I prefer quiet and the sounds of nature. Even my heaters are silent. I have a dog and two cats for company. Nice view out the window looking at the ski runs on the mountain. I use to listen to classical guitar years ago in Texas , but then I grew to prefer all the birdsongs down there. I heard a new bird song one day and discovered love birds ( real name) in a palm tree. Here I heard the song of a new to me bird. Pairs of sand hill cranes flying around the neighborhood. 

Marcia

[oldlady]

this house in florida is strange.  i can get a classical music station from sarasota in the car even when it is parked in front of the house.  cannot get it in the house or studio.  i could not get it even before i baptized it with blue slip.  i listen to weta npr music from DC when i am in west va.   i live at the very edge of the listening area and if you TOUCH my radio i will break your finger because i cannot get it back without lots of trouble.   late in the day there is a church sponsored station that overwhelms it and requires a lot of adjustment.

mostly i like the birds, there is a mockingbird here who is trying out for the opera and doing very well.

[yappystudent]

I have a medium size collection of new age music that I'll usually play as background to get going, then I'll sometimes stream OPB.org until I can't stand the news anymore. After that it's reruns on my monthly Netflix. Since I hand build in my kitchen I can see the computer screen. Sci-fi when they have something new, endless star trek when they don't. Also lots and lots of British crime dramas, I like the scenery.  

[Callie Beller Diesel]

NPR has an Internet feed, if your cable internet has better mojo than the radio waves. 

Alberta also has a public station that has an Internet feed, and it's pretty interesting. Even if you don't like what's on, it'll be something you might not have heard before. It's usually pretty good studio listening.

http://www.ckua.com/programs/ckua-live/

[Up in Smoke Pottery]

Quote

Typically crime dramas...Law & Order, Jag, NCIS,  basically about any syndicated TV show that I've seen before.   I don't watch them, just have them on for background.  I will do music if I'm home alone, tend to turn up too loud for the rest of the family.

 

 

[oldlady]

callie, if you were telling me about the radio vs cable, i do not have cable but i know that i could get lovely classical music on the internet.   i do not know how to do that without leaving my computer on all day.  that said, i don't mind paying for the electricity to do so but i think i am exposing my computer to possible hacking or malware by leaving it on.  am i wrong?  ( you realize that i still would rather have my mother's pink radio with the on/off button and a dial to change stations that she got in 1950 or so.   oooh, that's right, no FM on it.)

Edited April 18, 2018 by oldlady
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[Mark C.]

No commercials -only CDs I have so no junk tunes.

Must have tunes

I have a radio but it used less than .005% of time

[Denice]

I forgot to mention my other companion is my dog, he only stays for a couple of hours and sleeps.    Denice