The first semi final of the Battle of the Bands was  won by Coming of Age and 11th Hour.

The second semi final is on 2nd of December . The grand final is on the 9th.

and Rachael has just recorded the vocals for her latest song "Loving" here at Fitdog studios.

Look out for him on Saturdays at 8.00pm on BBC 1 from November.

Fitdog is currently gearing up to accompany Rachael on guitar for her latest single. Performances are scheduled on various radio stations over the coming months.

www.rachaelwarwick.com

Fitdog has partnered with www.stage-dive.com

Artists will receive discounts. Just mention Fitdog studios to Ben at Stage-Dive to receive the discount. Check out their website for further information.

To counter the heat that all the studio gear generates, Fitdog has purchased an air conditioner for the control room. All in the cause of creating a better environment for our visitors (and for me of course).

Fitdog has teamed up with a great voice coach Sheridan Coldstream of Total Vocal. We'd highly recommend Sheridan for those who would benefit from some voice training. His top students are performing at The Stables on the 17/07/2004. This should be a great night. Tickets are available through The Stables box office.

During May, The Idiot Boy visited Fitdog studios to record four additional tracks (They were at Fitdog in January). Recently major record labels are showing an interest in the band and they are currently embarking on a bit of a tour! - which is important if you want to start getting noticed - Which they are!

During May 2004 Fitdog had its first seven day working week since it's launch in Autumn 2003. Things are starting to calm down over June as all the school and university bands are having to prioritise on less interesting but rather important Exams!

Well it least now we can make you sing in key! Fitdog has just purchased the Antares Autotune 4 Plug-in. This plug-in analyses any vocal or instrumental passage against a pre defined key and where there is a deviation it adjusts the pitch. Of course there are settings that let you adjust the sensitivity and amount of adjustment so you can either instantly change pitch (eg the famous Cher effect) for artistic effect or use it very subtly to correct slight pitching errors on otherwise good vocal takes. 

This provides layered sample capability at the studio. This means that different samples can be invoked depending how hard the keyboard is played. This opens up a new world of realistic sounds where for example the tone of a piano note changes depending on how hard the note was played. Now all one has to do is sample every note at all the different velocities. (Who said engineering was all fun)

Fitdog also invests in a StudioLogic midi controller with its great weighted keys.

Pro-Tools is a digital recording format and sensitive ears can tell the glassy clear sound that it generates. Many would argue that this is not as pleasant to listen to as older analogue and valve based recording equipment. To accommodate these preferences Fitdog has invested in the T-Racks Mastering suite that 'models' these warm sounds producing that very expensive sound.

The idea is to provide a facility that bands can arrive at with only their guitars. When they are done there is nothing to pack up. This is a more up-market facility aimed at busy professionals who can not bear the late night lugging around of gear.

Check out the rehearsal page for more info.

For all your Queue Management needs at your next stadium rock gig check out www.tensator.co.uk