Two things happened this weekend. I turned 40, then I woke up with that familiar pain in my left wrist.  The pain that says “you will be wearing a wrist brace for the next few weeks, it will be almost as annoying is the constant throbbing.”

I suspect these two events are related.

Either way I had planned on writing a personal gear check, a “what am I playing.”  I do not supposed that most of the readers care so much about my rig but, the monster demands to be fed ¹ also, I’d like to see what the writers of my favorite guitar magazines play.  I thought it would be fun.

So, what am I playing?  Not guitar for the next couple of weeks.

I’ve been using Fruity Loops on and off since a co-worker gave me a cracked copy a decade or so ago ² I find it easy to pick up, but super deep to use.  It’s been my go to software drum machine for the entirety of the 21st century. Obviously I was excited when I heard that Image-Line was coming out with a Windows 8 Fruity Loops App.

So, yeah, the “easy to learn, deep to use” appears to have been thrown away for “touchy and possibly useable on a tablet.”  I thoroughly had no clue what I was doing.  Fortunately, it’s much easier to find information on how to use FL Studio Groove than it is to find information on a Wilkinson  trem. ³

In fact the makers were nice enough to produce this handy “this is how you use it” video:

So, that’s where I am now.  My day job went into beast mode this week and I haven’t had too much time to play with it, but I plan to.  It seems like this is going to be an ongoing project.  Or at least until my wrist heals up.

Let the beats begin!