Los Angeles, CA (March 25, 2022) — Wiz Khalifa has been tearing it up on the charts for 15 years now, and shows no sign of stopping. Hot on the heels of his Wiz Got Wings mixtape, released in December, he’s moving into acting this summer, playing funk legend George Clinton on the big screen in the Neil Bogart biopic, Spinning Gold. Despite all that going on, he’s also finalizing his next album, due out later in the year, most of which was recorded in his well-appointed home studio. Let’s take a look inside, shall we?
The home studio is hidden away inside Khalifa’s backyard pool house, and while it’s been there since he moved into the property some time ago, it was recently renovated and enlarged. Reportedly, Khalifa personally requested that Dave Malekpour, president of Pro Audio Design and Augspurger Monitors, redesign the studio.
Malekpour and Pro Audio Design West Coast sales director David Anthony spec’d the gear, centering it around a Slate Raven MI1 Core Dual Station studio desk; directly behind the console sits a pair of Augspurger Solo12-Sub212 monitors, which were optimized for the room by Malekpour himself to the specs of Khalifa and his engineer.
So what else is getting put into play? In the rack left of the Slate screens is a BAE Audio 1073 mic preamp and EQ at the top, followed by a Dangerous Music Monitor ST remote-controlled stereo monitor controller rack unit (the distinctive curved remote can be found on the desktop to the right of the chair). Next up is a Universal Audio Apollo X8 interface sitting above an Empirical Labs Distressor EL8-x and a pair of Furman M8L-x power conditioners.
Atop the bridge of the desk is a discontinued Aphex 124A Interface beneath the WiFi sign, and recognizing that most consumers don’t have a slamming set of Augspurger monitors to listen to, there’s a pair of Guitar Center’s in-house brand Sterling Audio MX3 3” powered studio monitors for a little real-world comparison-making while mixing.
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Over in the right-side rack is a pair of Augspurger SXE3/3500 two-way Class D networkable amplifiers to power those massive speakers. Rounding things out on the right, there’s a Neumann U 67 microphone with an AKG pop filter on the mic stand, and over on the desk, a “Molten Orange”-style pair of Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT2MO Bluetooth closed-back studio monitoring headphones. Matching the ’phones around the room are orange Jocavi acoustic treatments, spec’d by Anthony.
While Khalifa’s made good use of the facility, the room has also hosted plenty of Taylor Gang artists, including Ty Dolla $ign, Chevy Woods, Young Deji, Fedd the God and Sledgren, so it’s safe to say the studio will be kept busy for some time to come.
