Dutch & Dutch in The CultureHub
The CultureHub is a dynamic cultural space in Rotterdam. It was founded by Ruben Kramer (also known as "Freshly Cooked") and it is dedicated to the promotion of art, culture, and creativity. After a happy coincidence, Dutch & Dutch decided to sponsor The CultureHub with a pair of 8c's. We thought it might be nice to do a short interview with Ruben, to learn more about the impact of our partnership.
What is "The CultureHub"?
The CultureHub's primary objective is to provide a platform for creative exchange, innovative events, and community engagement. I started The CultureHub five years ago because I found that there is no “in between” place for artists. A place where emerging talents can experiment on a small scale. For visual artists that means learning to do expositions. For musical artists, it's about progressing towards live performances in a supportive and low-key environment
Can anyone perform here?
It's my mission to facilitate and promote artistic expression. That means I help bands with the venue and with marketing through my network, but I also require them to invest a little bit into themselves. Even if it’s only 100 euro, the bands have to make a small investment as well. And they have to have quality, it has to be "listenable", if you know what I mean.
How is business?
One of the reasons this place worked in the past is that I gave my time away for free. That’s why we could do many events that make no sense commercially, but are still very cool from a creative point of view.
Now that people are starting to know about us, it’s beginning to run on it’s own. It also means we are growing out of this place. We need a bigger venue. With most of our events the place is completely full. I’d like to open an extra place somewhere, but that might also require us to become more commercial. Something to think about.
How have you experienced the 8c's?
I have two opinions. As an artist and producer and as a venue owner.
As a producer I've personally found the Dutch & Dutch 8c speakers to be a game-changer. The sound quality is stunning and the ability to fine tune the audio to meet our specific requirements is revolutionary.
As a venue owner I honestly think every place should have a system like this. The thing is, I can turn up the volume on these and people can still talk to each other. With our previous system, not so much. It was either music or conversation, definitely not both.
Also, the speed and ease with which we can do measurements and optimize the speakers to the room are insane. I created three room profiles for this place, on up front, one for the bar, one all around, which I switch between depending on the type of event that we do. It works really well for us.
Have any guests responded to the 8c's?
It has happened a bunch of times that a young person walks in here and hears a high-end system for the first time. Seeing their mouth fall open, sitting down and listening for 60 min straight is always a treat.
But I also remember when some older guys walked in and a Fleetwood Mac song came on and we listened to it three times, because they were discovering layers in the track they hadn’t noticed before.
Did the 8c's help with your branding?
We recently did a small concert featuring artists such as Kriss Berry, Bruno Balbi and Sophia Habib directly on the 8c's. Both the audience and the artists themselves loved the audio quality. I wouldn’t have been able to do these shows and releases nearly as well without the 8c’s. Also, a lot of students from Codarts (a nearby art school, red.) often come here to listen to their latest mixes. So yes, it helped making a name for us here in Rotterdam.
What do you hope guests take home from their visit?
I hope that visitors leave this place with a deeper appreciation for art and listening. I hope I can introduce many people to the experience of high-end audio, how high quality sound can make you feel. I want to bring the 8c's wow-factor to more people. And to artists who come here unsuspectingly and then suddenly get the best sound they ever had. And I hope they all remember that this is the place with the best sound in town.
