By Mark Farmer

Many tools can make everyone's job easier, although many of them come at a hefty price. Many product users are willing to pay up for products that shorten steps making the results easier. Finding these products sometimes is not always easy. So, if the product can not be found, why not design it? This is exactly what George Williamson of Modular Sound decided to do one night over a meal with a friend. The question presented to these engineers was how to control midi products by using the Palm Computing platform with a usable fader interface.
My personal introduction to this new device came in the winter of 1998 at a concert event with Judy Collins and George handling FOH duties. George walked into the venue with a Berhinger Ultra-Curve in a rack and a Palm III Device. He hooked up a few things to the Ultra-Curve, walked out in the middle of the venue, and precedes to "wow" technicians in the room by controlling the sound system by his Palm Device. George set up the entire system equalization by walking about the room. Main left and right, front fills, and the rear room delay speakers were all equalized from the Palm. By inserting the Berhinger on the stereo master, George was able to have overall EQ control on the entire sound system. Individual speaker outputs were taken from the matrix outputs.
Now with two other equalizers being supported, George and Handi Systems have opened up the world of EQ control on the Palm Computing Platform.
In conjunction with the Ashly Protea review and the new Handi Systems Protea software I was able to utilize this new innovation on my own Palm Computing device. As of today, there are three pieces needed from Handi Systems that make the Handi Q software operate any one of the three EQ systems currently available. The HandiClip Midi wired interface, Handi Coil Cord RJ-11 to XLR A3M (485) or the XLR A3F to Midi termination cable and your particular EQ software are all that need to be purchased from Handi Systems Inc. The Berhinger UltraCurve, T.C. Electronics 1128 EQ and the Ashly Protea are the equalizers that are currently supported. The clip, software and cabling together will run the purchaser under $ 249.00 All three of the EQ software is priced at $99.00 and directly downloadable from the Handi Systems web site. With a little searching on the Internet a Palm Computing device can be had for as low as $160.00. As of this writing, George has informed me the clips are now wireless and a Sabine GraqphQ is being finalized. He claims the wireless HandiClip will be available in the Winter 1999 and is awaiting FCC type approval. Even with the addition of wireless technology, the phone-jack (wired connector) will stay put, just in case of interference or other such problems and upgrades from the wired version will also be available.
Do I have your attention yet? The custom clip from Handi allows the transfer of MIDI information to your favorite EQ device. This small pocket size clip contains the transport circuitry and a large green LED displaying any delivery of data. The clip contains two triple (AAA) batteries.
At the press of a Ôhot buttonÕ on my Palm Device I can access any number of Protea units that are chained together. A drop down MIDI menu, similar to your home computer desktop, allows instant access to MIDI channels of other Protea channels or other devices. Below the menu bar is a smaller visual of the Protea 28-band EQ. Ten small numbers show frequency-reference above that particular band. Just below the EQ graphic are miniature versions of faders for HPF/LPF, time Delay, a mute button and a volume fader. This is great addition, since it allows the user to quickly kill the output to a particular speaker or monitor wedge. In an emergency, the mute button can be hit that runs a script automatically turning down the open EQ channel volume. Each of these Protea features can be brought in or out by using the stylus pen to select the exact check box. Grabbing any frequency displays a larger fader version of that particular EQ frequency horizontally on the right side of the on-screen-viewing area. This large pop up fader also appears with the adjustment of the High Pass filter, Low Pass filter, Time Delay as well as the EQ Channel Volume. These large fader versions allow ease of repetitive use. Three long-rounded buttons named, Sync, All Flat and EQ Flat all bottom out the lower portion of the Palm window.
The "Sync" button copies the on screen settings to the current selected EQ. "All Flat" zeros all settings on that channel and "EQ Flat" zeros out only the EQ faders, leaving HiPass, LoPass, Delay, and Volume settings untouched. A very useful feature called "Copy Curve" is able to copy any EQ settings from one to another channel through a simple pulldown-menu bar. During each of these changes as well as any other changes the large green LED will flash. Handi Systems are also working on slaving or grouping for future upgrade releases. At the very bottom of the screen are boxes, which house numbers 1-16. Each of these numbers represents a possible channel of Protea EQ. With (for instance) 16 channels of Protea, each tap on these numbers would provide instant access to anyone of the 16 mixes onstage.
In Operation
In multiple uses over a period of months I have really begun to rely on the Palm Device as my personal calendar, date book, address/phone book and portable EQ. Many instances of use were simplified because the unit is portable to travel all around any venue. This allows quick EQ changes for any number of speaker cabinets in a room. I found there are many advantages of being able to make changes in volume, delay and EQ to various rooms or parts of rooms. All this transfers to a smoother sounding system for all attendees. In one moment I can instantly go from the Handi Q software to my personal phone book and back to the EQ window then right to the calculator and quickly back to the last monitor wedge being equalized. This becomes a valuable time saver, by not having to run back to monitor world or FOH each time a phone number or settings for a FOH processor are needed.
One other key point here is that this was invented by a sound engineer for sound engineers. The cost offset on this product is easily returned in one day's salary.
As I have commented before, any product to make a repetitive task less redundant is an exceptional product. Handi Systems has created a forward thinking product to take us all into the next decade.

Mark Farmer is a live sound engineer with Live Technologies Inc. in Columbus, Ohio and a regular contributor to PAR. He can be reached via the internet at: mixthat@columbus.rr.com

Please refer to the Handi Systems Inc. website for product related info or email me regarding operation, as I do still utilize this product.