Rane FOUR in review

The Rane Four is a high-end DJ controller with four channels, which offers ambitious DJs the ultimate control over Serato DJ Pro software. With sturdy platters and a four-channel mixer, it's not just a pure scratch device like the Rane One, although its 8.5-inch platters are excellent for scratching.

Instead, it focuses on features such as professional-grade hardware effects, deep Stems compatibility, and intelligent functions for live performance, including two laptop USBs, two microphones, and external inputs. It's not perfect, but it's probably still the best performance controller for Serato available for purchase right now.

First Impressions and Setup

The controller is classic Rane.

The color, styling, components... everything speaks of quality. It's built with solid metal and is one of the few controllers we know of that has a removable top plate for easy access to the faders for servicing and repairs. It's built to last. However, it's not entirely traditional Rane in one aspect: it has rigid (non-motorized) platters. They are 8.5 inches in size, full-size, but that might raise a few eyebrows for this reason.

Mixer Section

The mixer layout is like a blend of a club mixer and a scratch mixer. It features the paddle and FX section you'd expect from Rane controller mixers, but also has four channels and selectable filter FX.

Everything is compactly arranged, but it doesn't feel cramped, and the mixer section has everything you'd expect, including a split-cue button in the headphone section. This section is located on the front, along with the crossfader assign and contour controls, as well as the controls for the second microphone (the controls for the first one are on top of the mixer itself).

Rane four Back ViewOn the back of the mixer, you'll find the balanced and unbalanced master outputs, the balanced booth output, inputs for two (not four) external channels that can be switched between Line and Phono, two USB inputs for computers, and an IEC power connector (no cheap power supply).

Deck Section

rane four deck viewIn addition to the beautiful 8.5-inch jog wheels with built-in displays (showing waveforms, key, elapsed time, BPM, song position, and a digital scratch "sticker"), both identical decks feature large rubberized RGB pads, gorgeous OLED mini-displays above the pads providing pad selection information, and large, "clicky" plastic play/pause and cue buttons.

The pitch sliders are long and smooth, and there's a large beat jump section per deck with a size selector and left/right buttons. Essentially, you'll find all the controls you expect, including loop control, slip/censor, library navigation, pitch bend, key adjust, and so on.

The pads control the entire Serato performance mode, and with the addition of Stems, there's full Stems control via a dedicated pad mode, as well as "always on" acapella and instrumental buttons.

The Controller in Action

The device is designed to work with Serato DJ Pro 3.0 and higher, giving you control over Stems—one of the main selling points of the Rane Four. You download and install the Serato software, and when you connect the device, it will be unlocked.

To make this feature work properly, you'll need Serato's Pitch'n Time Expansion Pack for high-quality key shifting—fortunately, it's included.

STEMS-Feature

Let's begin with a comprehensive look at the Stems implementation.

rane four stems buttonsWith the acapella and instrumental buttons, you can instantly separate tracks into acapella and instrumental versions, regardless of the pad settings. The sound quality you get depends on the source material and is often not perfect, but it's almost always usable and sometimes even impressively good.

In the Stems pad mode, you can isolate or remove vocals, melodies, bass, and drums by tapping the upper four performance pads of the deck you're currently working on. When you tap the lower four pads, you'll access various pre-programmed effects—for example, "slowing down" the music while the acapella continues to play, removing the acapella with a nice echo cut, and so on. They are very easy to use and sound fantastic.

rane pur pad displaysOne unique feature of this device is the "Stems Split" mode. It's like an instant double function, but here, you play a track, press the Stems Split button, and the acapella goes to one channel while the instrumental goes to the adjacent channel. Now, you can use the channel faders to adjust and add effects, EQ, filters, etc., as if you were playing two versions of the song on two channels - which you are, in a way.

You can independently manipulate both tracks, for example, looping one, scratching the other, and so on. It's a truly fantastic feature, incredibly fun to use, and currently exclusive to the Rane Four.

Depending on your computer's performance, you can set the Stems to be pre-split in advance or work in real-time while performing. We tested it in real-time with a streaming service and an M1 MacBook Air, and it only took a few seconds per new track to be ready - quite impressive.

Effect Section

There are three types of effects: Serato Channel FX, Serato Main FX, and Rane Hardware Main FX.

rane four effect sectionThe Serato Channel FX offer Filter, Filter + Roll, Flanger, and Noise, controlled by the knobs below the Channel EQs. They are more of a "hammer" approach! You can't adjust parameters, which would be desirable for fine-tuning.

With the Main Effects - using the paddles, parameter knob, beat control via the joystick, and wet/dry control - you have the choice between controlling the six Serato effect units (distributed across two decks) and the built-in hardware effects from Rane. The Serato effects are nothing new, but the Rane hardware effects are quite new - even unique - for this type of controller.

With this, you have control over six buttons, but there are a total of 22 effects available, inviting you to perform wildly. You can save your favorites to the six buttons, and your selections remain even after powering off, allowing you to customize the system to your liking.

The effects are a mix of "excellent," "definitely not," standard, and "not to my taste" - which is normal given the variety of effects. For us, they may not quite match the effects from Pioneer DJ, but that's probably a matter of personal preference - they still sound very good. The selection of scales for the pitch effects is a lot of fun to use.

A small screen shows you what's happening with the joystick, helping you adjust beat values and manipulate BPM per deck.

When using the device without a laptop and, for example, connecting a recording deck to channels 3 and 4, the Channel FX become pure filters, but you can still use all the hardware FX. When a laptop is connected, everything you do on the device is sent to Serato, including adding hardware effects to the inputs, etc., so you can easily record or livestream the entire show.

Further Impressions

We enjoyed using this device because the layout of elements and the device itself are generously sized and equipped with full-sized and pleasant-to-use jog wheels. The in-jog displays are bright, but we would have liked a brightness adjustment knob. One thing we missed was the ability to adjust beat grids directly on the device for spontaneous adjustments.

Rane four front angle viewThe mixer is well-packed but doesn't feel crowded, and overall, we preferred the hardware effects over the software effects - although we didn't find the hardware reverb to be as convincing. Nevertheless, the sound quality was excellent, as one would expect from Rane.

One area where sound quality varies, of course, is the Stems - this is the case with all Stems algorithms. The more hectic the track, the more challenging it is for the device to convincingly separate vocals, basslines, etc. However, this can improve over time, so while the results may not yet meet production standards, they are generally suitable for DJs.

A nice feature is the ability to adjust things like microphone talkover and routing, crossfader cut distance, etc. using hardware - without having to connect a laptop or open a settings program. Pressing the shift button and the "Hardware/Software FX" button, then using the joystick to select and the parameter knob to adjust the settings in a menu/submenu system, allows you to do these adjustments efficiently.

Conclusion

For Rane, this controller represents a certain departure from old traditions, as it is a "static" jog wheel device and, therefore, not necessarily designed for scratch sessions. It is more aimed at performance DJs and thus targets the Pioneer DJ segment of the Serato user base.

To understand why the device was designed this way, it's probably informative to look at the brand family in the DJ sector owned by Rane's parent company, inMusic. There's Numark (lower-priced devices), Denon DJ (exclusively standalone DJ hardware), and Rane, now positioned as professional software equipment. In this analysis, the Rane Four fits perfectly into the picture.

Because the device is definitely professional. Metal housing, detachable front panel for the faders, impeccable sound quality, hardware effects, two microphone channels, four channels (two "standalone" channels), advanced Serato features... for those who think of controllers as "toys" - well, the Rane FOUR is no toy.

Stems is a feature that has not yet proven itself in practice, and the actual sound quality is currently only "good." The technology is clearly impressive. But will it establish itself as a performance element or only serve for music preparation? Rane and Serato are putting their hopes on the former because the Stems features take the spotlight.

Overall, based on the initial impressions and features, we are still convinced that the FOUR could establish STEMS as a completely new DJ performance element. If you have the budget and are convinced by the STEMS concept, you may consider investing. As a DJ gear, there isn't much to fault about the controller itself!

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Rane FOUR
Rane FOUR
From €1,498.00 €2,159.99
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