OverClocked Remix

I had not mentioned it before because I sort of assumed that everyone knew it. But, thinking about it just now - that is silly! Many people do not know. So here is a post!

OverClocked Remix (or OCR) is a collection of totally free music. Specifically, it's a collection of "remixed" video game music - where "remixed" here means "changed until it is just on the borderline of recognizability." (Compared to the original piece.) Genres include everything from country to techno, and all sorts of games have "remixes" on OCR, from Halo to Zelda to "Barbie Super Model". (Strange but true.) A great big chunk of my music comes from OCR - because it's 1) free and 2) very often quite good.

Another thing to note is the "site projects", which have links somewhere near the middle-bottom of the main page. These are sets of "remixes" of tracks from a particular game created for an "album", and tend to be of higher overall quality than the other stuff. They make up another good chunk of my iTunes library. Particularly recommended are the Cave Story* album, Voices of the Lifestream (though that one is gigantic), Bound Together, and Project Chaos.

In conclusion: Free, good music, often based on video games you may have played! Take a look. The only thing you have to lose is your bandwidth! (And your time.) (And maybe your hearing if you play it too loud.) (But that'd be your own fault anyway.)

*Cave Story is an excellent bit of freeware, by the way, and it may deserve its own blog post at some point. If you like Metroid or the later Castlevania games, you should have a look.