Butter NC brings Turbosound to Charlotte

1 September 2010

USA - Located in Charlotte's Music Factory entertainment district, Butter NC is an 8,300sq.ft space that has taken the Charlotte club scene to a new level, with lush design concepts, superior service, and a sound system that envelopes up to 400 guests with an upbeat mix of electronica, hip-hop and top 40 music.

Local design and install firm Eye Dialogue chose Turbosound TCS speakers to pump up the volume and provide distinctly different vibes on Butter's two levels, each with its own DJ.

"It's a total visual experience; they pulled out all the stops in designing this space," says entertainment technology designer Jack Kelly of Eye Dialogue Lighting & Sound in Charlotte, who designed and installed the club's audio systems. "But the big thing for the owners was the sound.They wanted it to feel like the sound was all around you instead of originating from one end of the room. That presented a lot of interesting problems."

To address this "directionless" directive within a fairly limited budget and specific limitations on the number and locations of loudspeakers, Kelly settled on a combination of Turbosound TCS Series speakers. "Replication of audio in a club setting isn't like a concert or trying to reproduce a CD. People expect to hear a lot of sub," he says. "But at the same time, it's got to be clean and distortion-free at any volume. It's a challenge. I was looking at several different manufacturers, but when I heard a demo of these speakers, especially the subs, I really liked what I heard."

Butter is divided into two distinct areas, each with a separate DJ and sound system. The main dance club is on the bottom floor, while the upper level houses a lounge with VIP area. Clubgoers enter on the second floor, which features curving walls and 16-foot ceilings. "It's a difficult space. The curves help and they softened it up with fabric treatments to make it less reverberant, but the building is an old warehouse with cement floors, so there are a lot of reflective surfaces. Basically, we have one speaker up in each corner of the lounge, aimed down and in. The subs are on the ground, inset in the walls," notes Kelly.

The four main speakers are Turbosound TCS122s, which radiate in a 60x40-degree pattern. The two TCS-B218 subwoofers feature dual 18-inch drivers that can reproduce frequencies down to 25 Hz at volumes up to 142 dB. "The 122 horns delivered exactly what we needed, and those new TCS B218 boxes subs give us a really full sound, even with the tall ceiling," Kelly enthuses. "The sound of that sub just blows me away, and it's really not that expensive. It's really an awesome box."

Down on the first floor, Kelly used a similar scheme for both the main dance floor and the lounge, adjusting his product choices to fit the size and shape of the spaces.

The first floor lounge, a smaller space with a slightly more restrained vibe, employs four TCS-121C mains with a pair of TCS-218C subwoofers. "Those are Turbosound's Contractor Series," explains Kelly. "The first floor lounge is a smaller space, so it didn't require quite the kick we have on the dance floor, and these boxes were perfect for that."

(Jim Evans)