Smoking Friendly Recording Studio in Los Angeles

Some sessions run better in a room where you can smoke cannabis without stepping outside. ZOOM Recording Studio operates two rooms at 539 S Rampart Blvd in Los Angeles, and ZOOM II is the one where smoking is permitted during your session. To be specific, ZOOM II is 420 friendly: cannabis is welcome in the room. Tobacco is not smoked inside any room; cigarette smokers use the shared indoor smoking lounge in the building, a few steps from the studio door. The room runs the same signal chain, the same monitors, and the same acoustic treatment as ZOOM I. The only operational difference is that ZOOM II carries a $10 per hour daytime surcharge ($4 per hour overnight) added to the standard rate.

ZOOM II exists because enough clients asked for it. Vocal takes, writing sessions, and late-night production runs go differently when you are not breaking flow to walk outside every 20 minutes. No judgment, no workarounds, no standing in a parking lot between takes.

ZOOM II records through a Neumann TLM 103 and Shure SM7B into a Universal Audio Apollo 8/x8 Thunderbolt interface. Monitoring runs through Yamaha NS10s, Dynaudio LYD 8s, and a KRK 10S subwoofer. Headphones are Audio-Technica ATH-M50x and Sony MDR-7506. The preamp stage is a Universal Audio 710 Twin, which handles both tube and solid-state paths depending on the source.

Software includes Pro Tools, Logic Pro X, Ableton Live 10, FL Studio, and GarageBand. Plugin suites cover Waves, Slate Digital, UAD, FabFilter Pro-Q 3, Antares Autotune, Melodyne, and iZotope Ozone 9. The monitor controller is a PreSonus Central Station Plus. A full inventory is on the gear list page.

This is the same setup running in ZOOM I. Smoking does not change the equipment, the room's frequency response, or the engineer's toolkit. The treatment panels, bass traps, and diffusion are identical between the two rooms.

Daytime rates for ZOOM II start at $49 per hour. Sessions of four or more hours Monday through Wednesday, or six or more hours on weekends, drop to $45 per hour. Overnight bookings (midnight to 9 AM) are $20 per hour Monday through Wednesday and $23 per hour Thursday through Sunday.

For comparison, the non-smoking ZOOM I room starts at $39 per hour daytime and $16 per hour overnight. Both rooms hold up to eight people and share the same engineering team.

If you want an engineer on the session, the Advanced Engineer add-on is $30 per hour with a two-hour minimum. Packages also apply to ZOOM II: the Rising Star (16 hours, $499), VIP (30 hours, $879), and Icon (50 hours, $1,365) bundles all work across either room. Full rate details are on the pricing page.

The most common use is vocal recording where the artist wants to stay relaxed and in character between takes. Rappers and R&B vocalists book ZOOM II more than any other group. Singer-songwriters working through lyrics in real time use it frequently. So do producers running overnight beat-making sessions who want to keep the vibe uninterrupted.

Voiceover and podcast clients occasionally book ZOOM II as well. If your session involves long stretches of narration or dialogue, stepping out repeatedly adds up. The room is also popular for same-day recording sessions where time is tight and efficiency matters.

ZOOM II follows the same schedule as the rest of the studio: open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Overnight sessions (midnight to 9 AM) are the most popular smoking room bookings. The overnight rate drops to $20 per hour Monday through Wednesday and $23 per hour Thursday through Sunday, which makes a nine-hour overnight lockout one of the most cost-effective ways to get a full night of recording done in a 420 friendly smoking room in Los Angeles.

On-site parking is available for clients. Load-in from your car to the booth takes minutes. The building is at 539 S Rampart Blvd in the Westlake neighborhood, close to Hollywood, Downtown LA, and Koreatown, and accessible from the 101 and 110 freeways.

ZOOM Recording Studio is at 539 S Rampart Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057, in the Westlake neighborhood. We are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. On-site parking is available for clients.

The studio is minutes from Hollywood, Downtown LA, and Koreatown. ZOOM II books on the same calendar as all our rooms: pick your time slot, select ZOOM II, and confirm. If the smoking room is taken, ZOOM I has the same gear at a lower rate.

Call (323) 616-1990 with questions, or book directly online.