Rane Seventy-Two Mixer and 12 Decks – High-End DJ Gear from NAMM 2018

Now that NAMM is over and the music industry can return to its hustle and bustle we are still left with endless amounts of cool new gear to talk about, and with Beat Lab’s DJ class just kicking off, we felt it appropriate to shine some light on some high-end gear from DJ gear veterans Rane. They’ve announced an awesome setup we really admire for its tech and innovative features.

This year Rane debuted their Seventy-Two mixer designed with the scratch battle DJ in mind, but it’s fit with some fancy new tech that we’re loving – a 4.3 inch touchscreen. The touchscreen features an easily accessible menu of controls for everything you would want from your DJ setup: song waveform, FX selections, it even features an XY pad for DJs who want to get a little bit wild. Additionally, this is the first Rane mixer to feature their new Mag 3 faders, an improvement upon their previous faders. These are built with materials 160x stronger than the previous iteration to withstand more use. If you want to adjust the tension on them just remove the faceplate and rotate the set screw. MPC pads are included for cue controls, beat-juggling, etc. and they include adjustable sensitivity and aftertouch. A nice touch is the dual USB connections for DJ handoffs, that way you won’t have to stop the music to switch DJs who want to battle with their own computer. Finally, they included assignable USB inputs to work seamlessly with their new 12 decks.

Rane chose not to stop bucking the status quo and revealed their 12 Decks alongside the Seventy-Two mixer, these things are eye-catching, to say the least. What you’ll first notice is that there are no tonearms on these decks, Rane has gotten rid of them and instead integrated the control vinyl to be tracked by the platter itself. It’s a bit of a twist to the technique when you think about it as there is no longer a tonearm to navigate around when scratching; on the other hand, there is no tonearm to navigate around the track. Rane dealt with that issue by placing a touch strip in the upper corner of the deck, where you can also set/delete and hit hot cues. If you have a capable mixer (and software) you can use one hardware deck to control 4 software decks individually.

Altogether the setup will run you about $2500, but compared to a mixer and double-CDJ setup that is pocket change. We really love that these new products from Rane completely embody the spirit of DJing – remembering the old and embracing the new – with their classic design and futuristic tech. We expect this mixer to be one of the first in the continuing trend to help DJs tuck away the laptop and focus on where their hands are, the touchscreen is awesome and we expect to see more like it this year.