Rane Seventy-Two Review

The Turntablism community breathes a sigh of relief as the Rane Seventy-Two mixer announces a new lease of life for Rane in the summer of 2017.
Initially, the prospective user was kept in the dark about specific features. The demo images heralded a flagship tailored to Serato DJ Pro, which after nine months of impatient waiting, is now slowly trickling into stores, ready for a closer look behind the scenes.

Rane's new weapon is a statement in the battle for DJ favor in terms of quality and price. Despite significantly more features, it's notably more affordable than its predecessor, thus reinforcing its competitiveness against the competition.

A machine for continuous operation

Already tactically, one recognizes Rane's familiar stance: professional, robust tools for the hardcore cutter. This is evident, for example, in the massive and scratch-resistant steel chassis in the well-known dual-plate construction.

Beneath the steel plate are three redesigned, wear-free MAG THREE faders, adjustable in their curve and sliding resistance under the front plate via clamp screw and incision. Regarding surface and design, Rane remains true to itself, especially in the arrangement of controls, color combination, typical knobs, and function buttons.

Rane places LED level indicators for Line, Sample, and Microphone channels as well as Master next to the respective buttons, as with predecessors. The American manufacturer equips the two Phono-Line channels with Gain, a three-band Equalizer, and HP/TP filter control. The two connectable microphones, on the other hand, come with a tone and level control as well as echo effect and talkover (only for the first microphone channel). The channel for Sample 8 recording can be adjusted in volume and enhanced with effects.

The Seventy-Two is open to all connectivity possibilities

Four RCA jacks for CD, Aux, and Phono players per channel and a Master output on XLR. The monitor is connected to a 6.3-millimeter jack.

Fortunately, Rane provides again the Session-In/Out port to integrate another one. Additionally, the Session-Out also replaces the missing record output. The two XLR jacks for the microphones can be used as line inputs via a switch. Designed to work with Serato DJ Pro and the new Rane Twelve motor controller, the Seventy-Two offers the right connections for these and two laptops, perfect for back-to-back operation, with the USB ports.

Adjustable Pads

The fact that a Serato DJ Pro-certified mixer features RGB illuminated performance pads is now standard. BUT: The matrix of the Seventy-Two was borrowed from the Akai MPC, providing a performance boost through the selectability of touch dynamics and aftertouch.

A total of fourteen different pad modes can be selected independently from the deck. If these presets are not sufficient, you can assign additional functions to the pads. The Seventy-Two truly leverages all effect possibilities.

Not only can up to three Serato DJ Pro effects per deck be played simultaneously at the push of a button. There are also eleven additional Flex effects for off-software operation on board. The effect combination can be rotated 180 degrees from their direction by two haptically very stable aluminum levers, which activate up to four effects simultaneously by clicking or tapping. A green LED on the lever indicates the active operational state.

The smartphone-sized display not only visualizes the effects for parameterization or modulation via X/Y effect controls, but also the waveforms including cues, playtime, BPM, and key of the played tracks. Since the display also invites browsing the library, the laptop could completely disappear under the desk in the future, to protect it from accidents of all kinds.

In the Battle Mixer segment, nobody passes the Seventy-Two so quickly

It is not only intuitive to operate, but also exudes professional sovereignty through its construction and robustness. This is also confirmed by the high-resolution and powerful sound thanks to the sound processing on a 32-bit/48 kHz basis with an excellent dynamic range of 117 dBA.

The faders glide smoothly along their track. The pads offer virtuoso playing possibilities, making the mixer surely the new instrument of the turntablists. The menu of the touchscreen presents itself logically and clearly. You can access the desired level without having to tap through many submenus. The waveforms are transferred 1:1 with the respective zoom factor from the laptop. So you'll always be up to date on the current position of a track.