[The Newbie Introduction Thread: Come on in and say hello!]

It's good to meet all of you!!!

[MIDi keyboard recommandations and other advice.]

My girlfriend is asking me about Christmas gifts and I was wondering if anyone had some music books about music theory or music learning they would refer as a starting point. Something from introduction level to intermediate if there is such a book or just a beginners guide. Are there exercise books as well or is it just theory and then go create type of books.

Although I mostly play keyboard by ear, I had a book called, "The Chord Wheel," by Jim Fleser. It is a great reference book and it will help a lot with chord theory. I've been formally trained on the sousaphone/tuba and I've been involved with band from the 6th grade up through college. This book even helps with transposing keys if you even decide to write orchestral scores.

but like timaeus mentions if this is going to be unpleasant because I might have buffer under-runs and/or latency issues because my computer is too old then it's worth waiting for something good.

I feel you on this one here. Before I upgraded my PC, I invested in an audio interface (Roland UA-4FX ~$90) around the end of 2010. I had it running on an old Gateway PC that I purchased back in '02 while I was still in college. It took a lot of the processing load off of the system memory and I used the interface's ASIO driver which cleared up a lot of under-runs and latency issues. However, when your're get plug-in happy on the effects side, the interface can only do so much and if you don't have the RAM to spare you're still gonna have issues. Right now when I'm on my laptop I'm good w/ 4GB of RAM, but on my desktop I have 8GB and I'm looking to upgrade to 16GB.

I'm thinking of investing in a midi keyboard, but for now I'm using an Alesis QS6 Synthesizer which works well for me, plus with the interface I can play some of the stock keyboard sounds into my work.

[The Newbie Introduction Thread: Come on in and say hello!]

It's great to see so many here interested in making and ReMixing game music. I hope to do more in the future. Plus, I've had this Sonic and MegaMan tune I'd like to do in my head since almost forever. If any of you have any music posted on Soundcloud (or other site) please share. I have some of my work posted on Soundcloud (SupaKoolEnt).

Keep up the great work everyone!

~Harold Jr(DoT)

[The Newbie Introduction Thread: Come on in and say hello!]

It's good to meet all of you! Have anyone done any good remixes lately? (regardless of submission, acceptance, or rejection)

I've only done one game remix so far. I submitted it back in Nov. '12, but I don't believe anyone heard it. I will do some more for fun, but I'd like to try something much different than the usual games that get remixed. However, Sonic, MegaMan, and the Street Fighter series are always fun too. I may take a gander at some of the music from Street Fighter 2010 (NES). It was a pretty cool game back in the day!

[The Newbie Introduction Thread: Come on in and say hello!]

Hey, I'm Harold Jr. (OCR name: Jr(DoT) of SupaKool)I am an Applications Analyst by day and a Game music composer+producer by night (or whenever I'm not at work). I've been involved in creating original music since 2004 as a hobbyist and I've been following OCR for about 2 1/2 years. I started out with a demo version of Fruity Loops 3.56 and Reasons 3.0. I'm currently using FL Studio 10, Reasons 3.0, and Sonar X1.

I have an ear for all types of music given that I've been involved in band from the 6th grade all the way through college. However, as of late I've decided to get back into creating music and sharing it with the world. I have started a YouTube and SoundCloud page @SupaKoolEnt. I've also just submitted my first game remix as well. I hope to get to hear some great works and even collaborate with some of you too.

Be Kool!!!