Large Nightclubs & Discos

Safety Alert

The tragic nightclub fire in Providence, R.I. has put a spotlight on the safety of so-called "soundproofing foams". Please visit our Safety page to learn more.
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Interior Acoustics

It is an age old problem: Sound system designers with only a distant familiarity with acoustics "design" a nightclub. Any attempt to design a large club or disco sound system without proper acoustic treatment of the room is likely to cause wasted time and money, and the sound can be terrible. To design the best club acoustics, one must have a knowledge of both acoustics and electronics.

Nightclub Noise Problem?
See "Bars, Restaurants
& Clubs"

Experience is good teacher. Bad experience is the best teacher. Fortunately, our experience was gained through correcting problems in installations that were originally designed by others. The Paradise Garage (See box at right) is a good example. Our company's expertise came from our early research with our own acoustical measurement products, such as the Acoustilog Reverberation Timer and the Acoustilog Impulser. We did not simply proclaim ourselves to be "acoustical consultants".

There are acoustical companies with more employees and companies that have been in existence for a longer time (we've been around since 1976). But as the sole acoustical consultant at Acoustilog, Alan Fierstein has worked on every one of the thousands of jobs we have done. No acoustical consultant offering these services has as much practical experience. No other consultant has designed his own test equipment that is so unique, other consultants purchase it.

When there is a problem that others cannot solve, we get called in. From a club owner's perspective, this is throwing good money after bad. We advise that we be involved in the beginning so the work doesn't have to be done twice, and that the club opens with the greatest chance of success.

Community Relations

We are the company to call if you want to avoid problems with neighbors and Community Boards. Our experience working for both clubs and residential See Al Fierstein in action [VIDEO]: Testimony and sound level demonstration at the State Liquor Authorityneighbors has shown us what needs to be done to head off bad experiences for both. Our philosophy is simple: A club that is the best possible neighbor to the community will make more money and will have a less stressful working environment. We have successfully gotten large club projects such as Spirit, Crowbar, Aquarium and Limelight approved at the Community Boards. More information can be found on our Bar, Restaurant & Club Noise and Expert Witness Testimony pages

Restaurant and club owners may want to read about our successful work on behalf of a restaurant space in a dispute with the condo board of their building.
See: Ellenberg

A list of some of our other club clients can be found here.

Large speaker stack
We specialize in making large and small sound systems sound good.
Paradise Garage Logo

The Paradise Garage

Al Fierstein designed the interior acoustics at the legendary Paradise Garage. He also ran the sound for the live shows by such groups as Dan Hartman, Loleatta Holloway, Grace Jones, Bohannan and many more. This was the first scientific application of acoustic principles to a dance club, and a paper detailing the club's acoustics and sound system was presented at the International Convention of the Audio Engineering Society. (To read the paper, click here) The Garage won the Billboard Best Disco Award many years in a row.

The sound system was designed by Richard Long, of RLA, Richard Long and Associates. Richard and Al brought Dick Heyser, the inventor of Time Delay Spectrometry, to the Garage for a special visit which he enjoyed greatly.

Under contract to RLA, Alan Fierstein designed the famous RLA series of crossovers, such as the X-2000, X-3000, X-4000 and X-5000. As the sole designer of these units, Al retains the complete schematics and still evaluates, repairs, modifies frequencies and gain, and customizes these old units. We don't manufacture them at the present time. We do not work on the copies made by Rane and others.

Fierstein also designed the Acoustilog SA-1 combining system for allowing seamless transitions from DJ Larry Levan's records to Al's live sound. The Acoustilog Impulser, designed for real-world acoustic troubleshooting, was used to "time-align" large speaker stacks at the Garage, before any other system was even on the market. The time delay unit for this was the Acoustilog TD-1.

Since that time, other club designers have been trying to copy the Garage. If you are designing a club and want the best in acoustics or custom electronics, contact the source, Acoustilog.