THE BRAND Rane
RANE Corporation was founded and incorporated in 1981 in Washington State and pooled over 40 years of combined audio experience to create RANE Corporation. RANE DJ started out with four products aimed at small bands, designed to make their live performances better. With these products, RANE quickly established a new price-point for performance, quality and reliability. RANE products were priced below the top high-end equipment yet outperformed and outlasted them but were still priced significantly above the low-end products, thus creating a new middle ground. A noteworthy testament to RANE’s design significance and reliability reputation, is that in their first two years of production, RANE designed and shipped eight new products.
Turntablism After creating many more innovative DJ products following the MP24, RANE was attending an AES (Audio Engineering Society) convention in New York City in 1998. Four extremely talented turntablists introduced them to their art form and invited a couple of RANE guys to join them in their back yard for some tutoring. It was an eye-opening experience for a couple of Joes from the sticks of Mukilteo. They felt privileged to be invited, not only to join in the turntablism fun, but also to be the company they selected to build their dream mixer. They knew RANE’s reputation in the club market and they understood RANE’s design philosophy.
The RANE product designers joined a handful of the city’s top scratch performers where they literally spread their ideas on the floor of Wiz’s apartment in Spanish Harlem and went to work. Thus, began the anatomy of the TTM 54 Performance mixer. For three days, they enjoyed the company of Rolly Roll, Development, DJ Big Wiz, Sugarcuts, Marz1 and Peter Parker. They watched performances by DJ Quest, The Crash Dummies, The X-Men and many more. During their stay, they defined every detail of the mixer: features, control locations, knob size and feel, as well as fader feel and much more. Collectively, they created RANE’s first hip-hop battle mixer, which became one of the most successful products in RANE’s history.
Present Day The rapid evolution of DJ mixing is absolutely mind-boggling. When RANE began, they never imagined how huge the world of music mixing would become. Disco clubs of the 70s and 80s featured basic blending. Now the genres, techniques and methods have exploded into endless possibilities. The mixer is no longer just a tool, but instead, has become a musical instrument, a vehicle for self-expression. Applications for DJ mixers have gone far beyond what was originally envisioned. There may soon be as many styles of DJ mixers as there are types of guitars. The evolution isn’t over! New mixing styles continue to develop, leading to new demands on both performance and features. The lessons RANE learned in the beginning have served them well during this rapid evolution.
