Ebersol, Switzerland (June 20, 2023)—Balik Studio is a unique place, offering a modern hybrid music production workflow alongside the production of gourmet smoked salmon in a 300-year-old farmhouse in the rolling hills of rural northeast Switzerland. Now it’s undergone a sizable renovation, overhauling the studio and outfitting it with the latest music production technologies, including a new mixing console and DAW system
“I really wanted to make this among the best studios in Europe,” says Peter G. Rebeiz, a lifelong musician, composer and producer, who is also a board member of the Montreux Jazz Foundation and the Montreux Jazz Café. In 1992, Rebeiz, who is CEO and president of fine foods brand Caviar House & Prunier, took over a business at Balik Farm that was handcrafting smoked salmon according to a 100-year-old Russian recipe from the time of the Romanov tsars.
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In 1996, he opened a residential recording studio on the top floor of the farmhouse that was designed by U.K.-based acoustic and studio design consultant Andy Munro. It features a spacious live room that can accommodate a classical ensemble or jazz big band, and over the years, has attracted clients such as Herbie Hancock, Pepe Lienhard, Pippo Pollina, Michael von der Heide and Gölä. Today, the two businesses continue to operate from the same location, which is roughly 30 miles east of Zürich.
As part of the renovation, the studio added an SSL Duality Fuse Pro-Station mixing console, a version of the desk that provides the operator with integrated hands-on hardware control over the DAW. Gögs Andrighetto, a veteran freelance studio and live sound engineer, helped repair and restore Balik Studio to full operation during the coronavirus pandemic and continues to make the facility his homebase. “A keyboard and mouse don’t usually fit very well with an analog console, but the Pro-Station fits perfectly. That was important for me, because 99% of my work is with the computer.”
