“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.”
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 dance floor is the loudest room in the club, requiring an immersive audio experience that remains clean and undistorted, even when the room hits 115 dB.
This is accomplished with Turbosound TCS-1561 3-way speakers with 15-inch horns above each corner of the main dance floor, radiating in a 70×40-degree pattern.
These are augmented by four floor-standing TCS-B218 subs spread evenly around the periphery to create the bass-heavy club sound the club was striving for.
The first floor lounge, a smaller space with 9-foot ceilings and 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.
With an open staircase connecting the two levels, the final key was finding a way to get Butter’s two main sound systems to play nicely together.
“Most of the time, they are playing two different styles of music. The stairwell is the key, because there’s a landing area where the bathrooms are, and that’s where the sound intersects,” said Kelly. “We had to find a way to make it the sound intelligible there without jumping through too many hoops.”
The solution was to add a single 8-inch speaker on the landing, with a wall switch to select the music from either space.
“If you reinforce the mids and highs of the music that is dominant on the landing – which varies from night to night – suddenly you’ve got clear sound,” he notes. “Theoretically, if both sources are the same volume on the landing, it wouldn’t work. But that hasn’t been an issue.”
The installation at Butter is aligned with Eye Dialogue’s emphasis on the use of new technologies and proven equipment to create solutions in both lighting and sound. “I like the scientific nature of audio design,” said Kelly.
“You’ve got a space, you’ve got a budget, and you’ve got a goal. So really, for any given situation, there’s always a best solution. At Butter, we achieved the owner’s vision of world-class audio in a visually oriented venue, and the new Turbosound TCS Series speakers were a critical part of that equation.”
Co-owner Scott Sartiano agreed. “Great sound is vital in every club, so we always use the best available,” he said.
“In this case, that meant Eye Dialogue and, in turn, Turbosound, and it has not disappointed. The sound in Butter is clean and crisp, yet powerful. You can’t help but notice the sound quality while you are there. I’d like to think it has become a welcome fixture and staple in Charlotte nightlife.”