Ashly Protea 4.24G Digital Four Channel Equalizer

By Mark Farmer

     Digital products have come to the forefront of technology. Many new home studio owners can now afford new digital technology that always seems to transfer to the world of live sound.
     With that in mind, digital equalizers are not necessarily new to the pro-sound market. A few companies have attempted to market a digital EQ. Some have been more successful than others. Ashley has stepped into the scene with their version of the digital EQ. Ashley has taken a slight risk, by manufacturing their first digital product in their twenty-five years of service. Four different units are being manufactured; a two and four channel version with a screen and two and four channel faceless or slave units.
     At the head of the line is the 4.24G as a four-channel stand-alone unit with a keyboard and LCD screen. The install version (4.24GS) is similar to the 4.24G except there is no LCD screen or keyboard. The 4.24GS operates as a slave accompanied by multiple other units; with the 4.24G as a master unit. Another option provided by Ashly is the 4.24RD. This is a portable "remote" type of unit, allowing the user to control up to sixteen Protea models. The unit will also allow the user to be 1000 feet from the other units with just two microphone cords. This portable unit is the face and controls of the 4.24G but contains no audio related ports. Additionally, a two-channel slave (faceless) unit is also available and is called the 2.24GS.
In Use
     Ashly provided the 4.24G for testing. This is a two-rack space unit, weighing in around 10 pounds. A quite affordable four-channel unit at about $2000.00 retail. With four channels of EQ, this provides more faders for the dollar compared to other expensive similar equalizers.
     The hearts of each of these units are 24 bit A/D and D/A converters. Motorola supplied the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) which governs, time-delay, limiting, high and low pass filtering and equalization.
     A handy keyboard on the front panel controls the Ashly Protea 4.24G. Four ‘Bank’ buttons allow access to MIDI channels 1-16. These Banks A-D control four MIDI channels each complete with a corresponding LED. Just to the right, are Channel buttons 1-4, which control the prevailing EQ curve on-screen. Ashly has provided channel linking, allowing the low number Channel to control up to all three of the other channels. A simple process by holding multiple Channel buttons down for a matter of a few seconds. Each Channel button is surrounded by three LED's each. One display's which Channel is active, a second is a red LED for Channel Mute and lastly a dual-color LED that denotes signal present and clipping. Further to the right on the keyboard display are the five Menu Keys. These keys are similar to the menu (soft) keys on the familiar OmniDrive. The keys on the Protea line up with on-screen labels to further dive into the Protea.
     By pressing the Menu key that corresponds to the label on the screen, a new window appears relating to the button pushed. The labels from top to bottom are as follows, EQ, Limiter, HPF/LPF and Delay. Beside each label an In or Out is displayed, showing the user the particular feature is being used or not.
     On the far side of the main view screen lies eight general operation keys. From left to right and top to bottom a Help button, Esc, Recall, Save, Flat, Copy, In/Out and the Mute are all instant access here.
     Again, this is no ordinary digital EQ. With the EQ Menu button pressed each of the 28 bands on-screen are accessible via the soft keys below the main viewing area. Each band has a boost or cut of 15 dB and a "Q" of 3.2. Another row of 28 soft keys below the EQ bands give the user controls to name or number the settings within the Protea. This can be done quickly after a few times of entering names. Using the Limiter allows use of popular features such as, threshold, Ratio, and Attack. A dual bar-graph meter shows up within the Limiter window screen showing gain reduction and output level. The Limiter is also selectable for Pre or Post EQ operation. Within all these Menu windows, modifications are made by using the keys below the perspective parameter. A High Pass Filter (HPF) and Low Pass Filter (LPF) are two 24 dB filters fully adjustable from 22 Hz to 19 kHz The Delay features allow instant adjustment to each channel of the EQ. Delay time is shown in Milliseconds at the top of the screen as well as meters and feet. The fifth button of the Menu keys is labeled More and takes the user to new windows, Metering, Userprefs, MIDI, and Security features. The Metering window presents input and output displays for all four channels of EQ. Ashly suggests keeping input at 0 dBu for best possible signal to noise. General controls such as Userprefs, MIDI and Security have easy to understand windows to configure the Protea for permanent installs or daily use at live events. The Help button is a dictionary for the labels on the front panel. A list of topics can be scrolled through allowing the user to figure out the use of a particular feature. This can be a useful item when the manual is not in sight. A Save button asks the user for one of 127 spots to save your settings then asks to name the preset.
     Moving to the rear the usual set up of balanced XLR input and outputs are available. Additionally, Ashly provides balanced 1/4" input and output connectors. Proper wiring must be maintained for proper use and can be determined by reading the manual. According to some users, inserting the Protea gave better overall results. To control multiple Protea units, Ashly provides MIDI connections for controlling more Protea units. Data In and Data Out ports (3 pin XLR) are provided to control the 4.24RD "remote" unit. In conjunction with Ashly Protea software a RS-232 serial data port allows computer connections for easy Protea management. Unfortunately, Macintosh OS software is not available, but Windows™ 95 and 98 are supported. This software as well as any upgrades are free downloads via the Ashly web site. The software also comes packaged with any purchase of a slave unit.
Summary
     In my experience, this four-channel unit is one of the superior sounding digital equalizers on the market. I would easily compare it to the T.C. Electronic 1128, the Klark Teknik digital EQ (DN-3600) or the analog version (DN-360). During swaps from the Ashley to a DN-360, I only noticed minuscule differences in sound quality. The Ashley had a barely noticeable edge to its overall tone and the width of the Ashley filters seemed to be slightly wider.
     Products like the Ashly Protea will move the rest of us into the future of audio with digital equalization and digital control.

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

Product Points
Plus
Sound quality
Beyond simple learning curve
No-glitch performance
Minus
Power button in rear
Overall
Monitor systems, FOH and installations can all benefit from the purchase of this futuristic product.
www.ashleyaudio.com