Since upgrading his studio to incorporate a pair of PMC IB2S XBD-A monitor loudspeakers, Swiss producer and engineer Patrik Schwitter has undertaken a steady stream of high-end projects at his Zurich-based facility.
In recent months, he has worked with internationally acclaimed harp player and Grammy Award-winner Andreas Vollenweider on a new album, Quiet Places, which was recorded in Swiss broadcasting company SRF’s Studio A and Vollenweider’s own studio House on the Lake. Schwitteris is also currently mixing music for a documentary film about Swiss writer Adolf Muschg, scheduled for release later in the year. Entitled Adolf Muschg – The Other, the film is directed by Erich Schmid and features music by 86-year-old computer Jazz legend Bruno Spoerri.
‘My PMC monitors just blow me away because they are so incredibly detailed,’ Schwitter says. ‘The system brutally reveals phase behaviour at any listening level, especially with the very low SPL that I’m used to working with. But the most important thing for me is the way my mixes and masters perfectly transfer into the ‘outer world’. I couldn’t be happier with my choice of monitors and am really happy to have such a reliable tool to work with.’
Over the past year, many people in the music industry have suffered and Schwitter considers himself very lucky because he has remained so busy: ‘It is a good situation to be in, despite the chaos that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused,’ he says. ‘I’ve had plenty of work coming it but I have also taken the time to upgrade other aspects of my studio, adding a 100-year-old Bechstein grand piano and an SPL Mercury DAC 120V DC AudioRail, supplied by MGM Audio, which is awesome.’
New hardware has also joined Schwitter’s equipment list, including pieces from Ehrlund, Antelope and Quantec, along with numerous plug-ins to add to his collection – he is, he confesses, a plug-in addict and now has close to 500 of them. But perhaps the most extraordinary addition to Schwitter’s studio is a new recording area – formerly a swimming pool just outside the control room, which has been converted into a dedicated space for live drums.
‘Offering a space like this might seem slightly anachronistic in these days of virtual instruments, but this environment gives people a chance to record drums traditionally with real microphones,’ he says. ‘It has plenty of room and really striking acoustics – not to mention a very original interior with crazy, 1980s Palm Beach wallpaper and still discernible olfactory traces of the swimming pool.’
As one of Switzerland’s pro audio veterans, Schwitter is ideally placed to guide new and established artists through the recording, mixing and mastering process. After starting his career at Ebony Studios in 1987, he founded Gamma Recording in 1990 and worked with numerous international artists including Eddie Harris, Gil Scott Heron & Amnesia Express and The Meters. He also tracked Destination Unknown, the final album from Sun Ra and his Omniverse Arkestra just before Sun Ra died. In 2010 he won the German Record Critics Award for Steve Lacy’s album November, and in 2019 he was nominated for the Independent Music Awards with Darkmatters.
Since opening the studio in 2017 Schwitter has worked with artists including Brainticket, Imperial Triumphant, Andromeda Anarchia’s Darkmatters, Iandara, Jurczok 1001, Travelogue and I Am Chaos.
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