Rane has released another partial picture from its new DJ controller, and this time we can move on from our previous speculation, as the pic contains enough for us to be pretty sure of what we’re seeing: A new fixed-platter Serato DJ controller, with a definite focus on performance features – especially the new Serato Stems feature. Could this be the “Rane Two”, or even the “Rane Stems”?
One thing we can now be sure of it that it is not an upgrade to the Rane One (from this pic it is almost certain that this has non-motorised jogwheels, which also have in-jog displays), and definitely not a standalone unit (the pad selector functions are pure Serato, the biggest giveaway being that they include the Sampler which never appears on any standalone gear).
If we’re right, this appears to be a bit of a departure for Rane, in that it does not appear to be specifically scratch-focused.
The OLED displays for the pads, the hardware key adjust buttons (and please, Rane/Serato, get that Key Sync to use fuzzy keymixing as Rekordbox and djay Pro AI do, not the current implementation that can shift songs way too far away from their standard keys to be usable), the separate stems controls, what look like further performance buttons out of focus above the jogs… this could be the kind of controller Denon would have released in the past, had it not gone strictly down the Engine DJ standalone route in recent years. (Remember, Denon and Rane are part of the same company, inMusic.)
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Will it have a four or two-channel mixer?
The only big thing we’re now not sure about is whether the mixer part of this device would be a scratch-layout two-channel mixer or a four-channel mixer. We’d now suggest the latter, because as we can see the pads are definitely with the decks – not the mixer – meaning we’re probably not looking at a battle-layout mixer section; that fact, combined with the jogs being almost certainly non-motorised, would lean towards this not being primarily aimed at scratch DJs, and more a high-end performance controller, which you’d expect to have four channels, and “standalone” mixer capability.
As ever, we’ll let you know more as soon as we have it.
Phil Morse
