Yes, its another n00b thread, sorry in advance

anyway, so i've been wanting to start to kick in producing, i've been DJing for about 2 years +-, now i have cubase and a bunch of samples, but my main problem is that i have no knowledge of cords.
i kinda know how trance track structure is, so i dont think that i'll be the problem.. but my question is... where do i begin?!, is learning cords really essential in making tracks?, or is it something i'll pick up along the way?. oh and another problem, my soundcard is a SB Live 5.1, which is kinda old i guess.. and i get delays in Cubase.. is that something fixable or will i have to live with it?.

thanks in advance
yuval!

if you know the basic notes in a given chord, you have some idea of scales. Look at a chord as a group of notes that work well together, whether played separatly or as a group. So, yeah, I guess they are important in that sense. Look more into scales though. Chords are made up of a group of notes in a scale. If you know your scales, you'll knkow what notes will fit together as a chord rather than a trainwreck. By delays, I'm assuming that you're recording one track while listening to another? Yes, there is a way to get rid of that delay. Its called latency. Get a sound card that is intended for recording. Also, you want it to support ASIO (audio streaming in/out) Lots of good ones out there.