Damn it Rane — I’m dressed up and ready to work out on a Sunday morning, but my inbox, social media, and comments are pinging like hell with pictures of your brand new Seventy Two mixer, unveiled at the DMC US Finals. For me it’s more notable for DJ Perly taking first place, which if I’m honest is probably more important in the whole scratch DJ scheme of things, because Perly is the first female US DMC champion. Well done Perly!

But back to the mixer. For the record, this is the first time I’ve seen or heard any details. The photos are everywhere (and uncredited I might add) but thanks to Tim Assam II and Nick Bivona for the heads up. I got my copies (cleaned up and improved for editorial purposes) from US DMC organiser Christie Zee’s Facebook page, and the bottom shot is most likely from Rane’s event photographer.

I’m getting a demo via Skype tomorrow, so right now I can’t answer every question — not because of any NDAs (I don’t sign them now), but because all I have to go on are the handful of pictures in my assorted inboxes.

Reworked from the original image, because thats how I roll.

Getting the oh so obvious out of the way — it’s the best battle mixer Pioneer DJ has yet to make. Clearly, it’s the DJM-909 and DJM-S9 in a blender, held together with a liberal serving of Rane magic. The established Rane ID is there, but the influences are crystal clear.

Let’s bullet point this because I now need my breakfast:

Two channels classic battle mixer design
Looks like USB x 2, AUX, and phono/line selector (can’t quite make it out)
Serato DJ mixer
Classic Rane build
Mag Three x 3 fader reference — possibly updated fader in all slots
Three band EQ plus HP/LP filter per channel
2 x 8 buttons just like the S9
Separate mode buttons showing pitch play, man loop, pad fx, fader fx (ooh nice), transport, cue, auto loop, roll, sampler, and slicer.
Big central touch screen. I think it’s touch because of the touch fx button right underneath it.
Two banks x 3 effects buttons.
Flex FX button
FX depth control
Big effects switches, possibly removable to rotate switches.
Separate Sampler channel with filter control and effects routing?
2 x mic channels, with echo and duck control on mic 1
Curves and reverses on all channels
A mysterious “deck swap” LED
Footswitch input
Dual USB inputs
Dual USB outputs labeled “turntable” (be still my beating heart)
the biggest grounds in the history of the world
Booth and master
Session in/out
Phono/CD plus aux per channel

I think that’s everything of interest. So there’s a lot going on, and I imagine I’ve missed some things too. But it’s very clearly preempting whatever Pioneer DJ had planned next for the S9. inMusic is clearly piling the pressure on.

REVEALED: Rane Seventy Two is all you wanted it to be — USB turntable inputs? What magic is this?

THE MOST EXCITING THING

I’m sure a lot of you are experiencing trouser trauma at the top of the Seventy Two, and rightfully so. But it’s the dual USBs labeled “turntable” that excite me the most.

At first I thought it was a hub (which would have been a great idea), but this could indicate another Rane device is coming. It could be a turntable (I’m hoping for a more turntablist friendly version of the Denon VL12 at some point), or more likely a nod towards an external device, perhaps an audio interface/hub/screenthing (think Numark Dashboard) that you plug your regular decks into and in turn just USB out to the mixer. I’ve head of something similar floating around so I guess we’ll see.

My mind has logically already thought about a Seventy One and Seventy Four. Hell, let’s have a Seventy that’s essentially a nuke proof box with three faders and EQs.

WHAT’S THAT SOUND?

It’s credit cards hitting screens to no effect, and cameras busily snapping pictures of DJM-S9s and bunging them up on eBay. For the Rane Seventy Two clearly replaces the old Rane Sixty Two, as well as the S9 in one fell swoop.

UPDATED STATEMENT: Native Instruments job losses and One Native strategy

There are questions though — the price is unknown, but it obviously won’t be cheap. That said, while the engineering is still Seattle, the manufacturer is far east, and the promise of being able to do more is apparent. My guess is that whatever the S9 is now, the Seventy Two will be the same or a tad cheaper.

That’s enough for now. I need to work out, eat breakfast, and have the rest of Sunday off, because I suspect this week will be somewhat busy. Let’s wait until we get the full detail on what this beauty can do.

ONE LAST TIME

Congratulations to DJ Perly. I’m sure you’re all seeing nothing but the new Rane mixer, but that’s not the most important thing that happened last night.