- Rane, long-time Serato partners and makers of some of the finest DJ mixers available, have created the Sixty-Four, a new four-channel mixer to control the latest Serato DJ software and whatever else you can throw at it.
The top panel is loaded with various digital controls and what might be the highest count of backlit buttons ever seen on a DJ mixer. Every control on the mixer is also MIDI-assignable with predetermined control mappings for Serato DJ, which is included with the mixer. The software and drivers installed very easily on my Mac and loaded my old Serato library without a problem. It is important to note that the Sixty-Four also acts as a ten-by-12 audio interface, increasing its value with its potential to be used in the studio and also to incorporate other third-party software into the mix. One of the key features for club install is the two USB ports, which allow DJs to easily change over in a live setting. People doing laptop-driven live sets can also benefit from the instant routing to and from the mixer's I/O and extensive MIDI controls.
At the heart of the mixer are four channels, each selectable between a phono, line, software deck and a universally shared RCA aux input. It's hard to miss that they are labeled from left to right as channels 3, 1, 2 and 4. Rane's logic for this is to keep channels 1&2 immediately above the crossfader, but I found it to be a rather annoying inconvenience—a mixer capable of having two laptops, four turntables and/or four CDJs connected should be laid out cleanly, without its channels out of order. From the top down, each channel begins with gain, followed by a three-band, full-cut EQ with a range of "off" to +6 db. Below that is a filter that at 12 o'clock is off, a LPF to the left, and HPF to the right. The filters have a range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The resonance of each filter, thankfully, is adjustable via the mixer's screen in the effects section.
Next is a switch to choose which side of the crossfader a channel is assigned to and buttons for cueing and sending to the FlexFX section. Channel faders and the crossfader are both curve-adjusted, with a discreet mini-fader instead of a knob like the old Sixty-Eight model. The faders felt very lightweight, which may be desirable to scratch DJs but a little too light for my liking. Back-to-back performers will be happy to find 1/4-inch headphone jacks on both the top and front panel of the mixer, with an extra 1/8-inch jack as well. Alongside the extremities of the mixer are control strip panels that manipulate Serato or any other mappable software. With these knobs and buttons, you can browse the Serato library, activate cue points and loops and trigger samples. There are also a few banks of buttons that can be mapped to whatever the user desires, including effects parameters, for example. Someone not using a laptop can ignore these entire rows of controls.
Each channel, the master and both mic inputs can be routed to the full-featured FlexFX section. There are six internal effects available, including filter, flanger, phaser, echo, robot and reverb. An infinite rotary encoder and small joystick are used for adjusting parameters like LFO rate in milliseconds or depth. Pressing the Shift button and an effect button will open a menu on the on-board screen for selecting a specific type of that effect and adjusting additional parameters. Via an insert button, users can engage a software insert from the included Serato DJ effects bundle, Serato expansion packs or third-party DAWs. These software effects are available per USB port, so there's an A and B button for either computer. The included effects can be run as single or triple effects; the triple effects, however, have limited parameters. Unfortunately the mixer doesn't map directly to the internal effects, so the manual suggests remapping the mic controls for this task. Running Pro Tools in the background, I was able to select the Rane Sixty-Four as my soundcard, open an aux track and route turntables to RTAS plug-ins that then appeared on a different Rane fader. I did not have the same success with Reason 6.5, which could not be run in the background without dropping out. Rane tech support confirms that Ableton will work as an insert effect.
Most importantly, the mixer works as a soundcard with any DAW for recording and playing back audio. (Confusingly, 48 kHz is the only sample rate allowed.) If someone were taking on a vinyl digitizing project, this would be the simplest way to record up to four turntables simultaneously. Even though I wouldn't use most of the effects while DJing, I recorded a few samples through a chain of onboard and software effects and easily recorded the results into the Serato recorder for further chopping. Also available on the back panel are pairs of 1/4-inch jacks for connecting a hardware effects processor, and it's possible to use all three effects sources (internal, Serato software and external) in serial. If effects are your thing, this mixer delivers.
The Sixty-Four is most certainly loaded with a great deal of I/O on the back panel, and in a very compact fashion as well. Each channel has a single RCA input for either a turntable or any line input that has a mini switch to determine which preamp is used. Mic 1 has +48V phantom power, which makes me think the Sixty-Four could definitely be useful in the studio. Mic 2 is switchable between mic and line level, another clever use of the rear panel real estate. A single stereo auxiliary in can be routed to any of the four channels. There's a pair of both analog and digital (S/PDIF) inputs and outputs labeled Session for unbalanced record-ins and -outs. The main outputs are XLR connectors, and the booth output is balanced TRS jacks. There are many ways to connect the Sixty-Four to any setup, without the compromise of clutter in the back.
The learning curves of both the mixer and Serato DJ are a bit steep for the uninitiated, but with a little practice, there are lots of features to be utilized. For the basic DJ, most of this stuff may be overkill, but for those who use Serato and lots of effects, this may be their dream mixer. And the USB soundcard capabilities definitely increase its value if you do studio work, even just recording mixes and doing edits. It has the high-quality sound you'd expect from Rane, and the layout, while intimidating at first, was for the most part well thought-out, with ways of routing many sources and destinations with flexibility. My only complaints are the strangely out-of-order channels and the occasional dropouts, the latter of which were remedied with some calibration.
Ratings:
Cost: 3/5
Sound: 4/5
Ease of use: 3/5
Versatility: 4/5