Rane FOUR Review

The Rane Four is a high-end DJ controller with four channels, offering performance-oriented DJs ultimate control over Serato DJ Pro software. With rigid platters and a four-channel mixer, it's not just a scratch machine like the Rane One, although its 8.5-inch platters allow for excellent scratching.

Instead, it focuses on features like professional-standard hardware effects, deep Stems compatibility, and intelligent features for live performance like two laptop USBs, two microphones, and external inputs. It's not perfect, but it's probably still the best performance controller for Serato available.

First Impressions and Setup

The controller is classically Rane.

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

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 know from Rane controller mixers but also has four channels and selectable filter FX.

Everything is compactly laid out but 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 on the front, along with the crossfader assignment and contour controls, as well as controls for the second microphone (the controls for the first are on the top of the mixer itself).

On the back of the mixer are the balanced and unbalanced master outputs, the balanced booth output, inputs for two (not four) external channels switchable between Line and Phono, two USB inputs for computers, and an IEC power connector (no cheap wall wart).

Deck Section

In addition to the beautiful 8.5-inch jogwheels with internal displays (showing waveforms, key, elapsed time, BPM, position in song, and a digital "sticker" for scratching), the two identical decks feature large rubberized RGB pads, gorgeous OLED mini displays above the pads providing pad selection information, and large plastic "clicky" 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. Basically, you find all the controls you'd 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, but also "always on" Acapella and Instrumental buttons.

Using the Controller

The device is designed to work with Serato DJ Pro 3.0 and above, giving you control over Stems - one of the Rane Four's big selling points. You download and install the Serato software, and when you plug in the device, it's unlocked.

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

STEMS Feature

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

With the Acapella and Instrumental buttons, you can instantly separate tracks into acapella and instrumental, regardless of pad settings. The sound quality you get depends on the source material and is often not perfect but almost always usable and sometimes even very good.

In Stems pad mode, you can isolate or remove vocals, melodies, bass, and drums by tapping the top four performance pads of the deck you're currently working on. Tapping the bottom four pads gives you various pre-programmed effects - for example, slowing down the music while the acapella continues, removing the acapella with a nice echo cut, and so on. They're very easy to use and sound great.

Unique to this device is the "Stems Split" mode. This is like an instant double feature, only here you're playing one track, hit the Stems Split button, and the acapella goes to one track, and the instrumental to the adjacent channel. Now you can use the channel faders to blend and add effects, EQ, filters, etc., as if you were playing two versions of the song on two channels - which you are.

You can edit both tracks independently, for example, looping one, scratching the other, and so on. It's a really cool feature, loads of fun, and currently only possible on the Rane Four.

Depending on your computer's performance, you can set the Stems to be pre-split in advanceor work in real-time during your set - we tested it in real-time with a streaming service and an M1 MacBook Air, and still, it only took a few seconds per new track to be ready - pretty impressive.

Effect Section

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

The Serato Channel FX offer Filter, Filter + Roll, Flanger, and Noise, controlled with the knobs below the channel EQs. They're more of a blunt approach! You can't adjust parameters, which would be desirable for fine-tuning.

Regarding the Main Effects - the paddles, parameter knob, beat control via joystick, and Wet/Dry knob - you have the choice between controlling the six Serato effect units (spread across two decks) and the built-in hardware effects from Rane. The Serato effects aren't new, but the Rane hardware effects are very new for this type of controller - even unique.

You have control over six buttons, but there are a total of 22 effects available, inviting wild performances. You can save your favorites on the six buttons. Your selection remains even after power off, so you can set up the system according to your preferences.

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 can't quite compete with the effects from Pioneer DJ, but that's probably a matter of personal preference - they still sound very good. The selection of scales for pitch effects is a lot of fun.

A small screen showing what the joystick is doing helps you change beat values and manipulate BPM per deck.

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

Additional Impressions

We enjoyed mixing with this device because the layout of the elements and the device itself are generously sized and have fully functional and pleasant-to-use jog wheels. The In-Jog displays are bright, but we would have liked a control to adjust brightness. One thing we missed was the ability to set beat grids directly on the device for spontaneous adjustments.

The mixer is packed with features but doesn't feel cramped at all, and overall, we preferred the hardware effects over the software effects - although we didn't find the hardware reverb very convincing. However, the sound quality overall is excellent, as you would expect from Rane.

An area where sound quality varies, naturally, is with stems - this is true for all stem algorithms. The more hectic the track, the more challenging it is for the device to convincingly separate vocals, basslines, etc. This could improve over time, so while the results don't yet meet production standards, they're generally suitable for DJs.

An interesting feature is the ability to adjust things like microphone talkover and routing, crossfader cut distance, etc. via hardware - without needing to connect a laptop or open a configuration program. Pressing the "Hardware/Software FX" button while holding down the Shift key and then selecting through a menu/submenu with the joystick the settings to adjust, making the actual adjustments with the parameter knob.

Our Impression

For Rane, the controller represents a sort of break from old traditions, as it's a device with "static" jog wheels and therefore not necessarily designed for scratch sessions. It's 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 enlightening 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, removable front panel for 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 not a 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 betting on the former with the Rane Four, as the stems features are at the forefront.

Overall, we're still convinced by the initial impressions and features because the FOUR could establish STEMS as a completely new DJ performance element. Those who have the money and believe in the concept of STEMS can invest confidently. There's not much to fault about the controller itself as DJ gear!