Although I am very new to the OCremix Forums, I've been a dedicated listener for many many years now.
I started producing/covering music at the age of 12 with a small arsenal of cheap guitars & pedals. (now 22) I am a producer of all sorts of genres, and I too was inspired by video games to begin writing music at a young age. More importantly, I finally decided to jump on here and give the OCremix community a shot after reading some of the Directors' & Artists' comments on the Temporal Duality release a few days ago. The one note that really pulled at my heartstrings was this one from Matt Keller (SuperiorX):
"The Sonic the Hedgehog series has always been very special to me. Growing up, my family had an NES, but when it came time for the next generation, we decided to get a Sega Genesis. The bundled game was, of course, the original Sonic the Hedgehog. From that moment on, I was hooked. I have many fond memories playing those games, especially Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3, with my family, and watching the cheesy 90's Saturday morning Sonic cartoons. I remember going through the sound test menus just scrolling through all the original tunes, because they were just so much fun and so addicting to listen to. One birthday, I received a little Yamaha keyboard and was so excited to try to learn and play the Sonic soundtracks myself."
This is literally my word-for-word story as well (but replace the Yamaha keys, with a Dean 6-string electric)
Reading these comments really made me feel like I might have a lot in common with some of the producers here, and also like I may be able to find some incredible projects to join in as well. I've always felt like OCremix was a bit out of my league, but I refuse to accept that anymore; I believe that I can contribute greatly to this fantastic family of VG music enthusiasts, and one day I hope to impress and entertain you all