He won twenty Grammy Awards for his work with Henry Mancini, Steely Dan, George Benson, Toto, Natalie Cole, Quincy Jones, and others.

[2] After serving in the U.S. Navy, he began working at Apex Recording Studios at the age of 19 as an apprentice.

[3] Schmitt was the only one at the studio and couldn't get the owner or engineer Tom Dowd on the phone so he did the session in person.

When Apex closed, he moved to Nola Studios for a year (Tom Dowd told him of the opening), then worked at Fulton Recording.

At Fulton, he worked with engineer Bob Doherty who taught him how to mix large orchestras.

In 1958, Schmitt moved to Los Angeles and became a staff engineer at Radio Recorders on Santa Monica Blvd in Hollywood.

[1] While at RCA he engineered albums for Henry Mancini ("Moon River"), Cal Tjader, Al Hirt, Rosemary Clooney, Liverpool Five, The Astronauts, Sam Cooke ("Bring It On Home to Me," "Cupid," "Another Saturday Night") in 1961.

He also did a lot of motion picture scoring work for Alex North and Elmer Bernstein.

He produced albums for Jefferson Airplane, Eddie Fisher, Glenn Yarborough, Jackson Browne and Neil Young.

In the mid 1970s he began spending more time engineering again, recording and mixing artists from Willy DeVille to Dr. John.

He also recorded Sammy Davis Jr., Natalie Cole, Thelonious Monk, Elvis Presley, Tony Bennett, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and many others.

In 2014, Schmitt worked on Bob Dylan's album, Shadows in the Night, which was released on January 30, 2015.

[13][14] Don Was, Joe Walsh, and president/CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Leron Gubler were speakers at Schmitt's Star Unveiling Ceremony.