Rane and Serato have worked tightly together for eight years pioneering practical DVS systems. The TTM57 is definitely showing its age, though, and has now received a modern update. There are 2 models of mixers: The Rane 61 and the Rane 62 depending on what your flavor of mixer is.
We thought actually talking to the minds behind the products would be pretty interesting – and we were right. Check out the above beautiful-looking interview shot by Zach in the most coincidentally aesthetically pleasing meeting room in the world.
Refined Design
A lot of the developments that came about through the design of the Sixty Eight have been carrried forwards in these new mixers. Perhaps two of the most exciting are 32-bit floating point audio throughout and two channels of full USB 2.0 connectivity. The faders are all Rane’s patented magnetic design, one of the many design decisions that is predicated upon the Sixty One and Sixty Two being scratch DJ orientated mixers.
The buttons on the Sixty Two are a somewhat unique design. They’re not dissimilar to the ones on the Sixty Eight, but they’re definitely different. They’re a very hard plastic, with almost no travel. Rane explained that there are two reasons for that choice: the longevity of the actual buttons is somewhere in the order of five million presses, and ergonomically there’s a strong case to be made for lining the buttons up above the channel faders in what is ostensibly a scratch mixer. For a start, leaving the fader area free is imperative to scratch DJs, and also being able to stretch fingers from the fader section up to the buttons and press them with almost no resistance is great. Of course, if you don’t like them, the Sixty One’s more spartan design may be for you.
Capabilities
Both mixers have a hardware filter, and feature adjustable resonance. Whilst the Sixty One more or less stops there when it comes to dazzling features, the Sixty Two has a whole host of extras. The Sixty Two’s hardware effects:
- Filter
- Flanger
- Phaser
- Echo
- Robot
- Reverb
One of the big developments about the effects on the Sixty Two is their simplicity. There’s a depth knob, an adjustment dial, and the ability to manually select BPM (should you not be using Scratch Live, for which the effects are all pre-synced to the internal BPM), and that’s all. Of course, the Scratch Live effects can be configured in software, and as the controls are all MIDI it’s possible to assign controls you don’t use much (perhaps mic control, for instance) to their parameters. The Scratch Live insert is available on the Sixty One too, as are external effect send/return, and they’re all stackable. All effects are totally post fader too, which is a big plus over Pioneer’s efforts; cross fader and line faders are all post.
THE BOTTOM LINE (SO FAR)
The Sixty One is the simpler of the two mixers, designed to be a less feature heavy and thus simpler version of the two; it’s more a Scratch Live enabled version of the TTM-56S than a two channel Sixty Eight. The Sixty Two on the other hand is a behemoth of potential, and if you like the design you might see yourself finding reasons to spend the extra (prices are to be confirmed, but I don’t expect either to be cheap – definitely not the Sixty Two). I’m not 100% sure where I stand between the two yet; I love the effects of the Sixty Two but at the same time I have existing tools to manipulate DJ software, so I doubt I’d use the buttons for the majority of the performance.
For more information on each of the mixers, including complete tech specs, visit the extensively in-depth Rane product pages for the Sixty One or the Sixty Two. It’s also worth showing off the above version of the Sixty-Two Z-Trip’s Limited Edition Sixty-Two Z Mixer, which features:
- Face plate design by Shepard Fairey.
- Purple and yellow accents.
- Includes custom purple cables
Could this level of control and integration tear you away from Traktor (or are you an existing Scratch Live user whose dreams have just come true?!). Tell us what you think!
Editorial Awesome Video Update
I play vinyl – is this the wrong mixer for me? Thanks for any feedback. Haven’t bought a mixer in 10 years!
If you live in Washington I can get the gold empath for 600 brand new with road case
just used one in a club last night and can honestly say i have only praise for this mixer, shame ill never afford one.
hey guys, which serato is in it ? i mean the 62′ has serato II or III ?
Z-Trip and Vjara @ NAMM on the new Rane Sixty-Two Mixer: http://www.45fresh.com/product/namm_2012/Blog
The new Rane Mixers are absolutely great! The Sixty-One will be the replacement for the TTM57-SL with these improvements: USB 2.0 instead of USB 1.1, Core Audio/ASIO drivers for recording and playback (itunes, use with other DJ software), higher sample rate and bit depth (24bit, 48khz), XLR – 1/4″ combo mic input, and a USB insert function for FX (use software FX on all channels and mic input of your mixer) to name a few. They did switch from XLR to 1/4″ outs but who cares!! get an adapter if you must. The Sixty-Two can be seen as a 2 channel version of the Sixty-Eight. The only difference between the Sixty-Two and the Sixty-Two Z is the face plate and that you get a custom cable set with the Z. The preform the same.
For those who don’t want to use the Scratch Live Software, these new mixers are fully MIDI mappable and can be used with a number of other software. Sounds like a great thing to me!
SIXTY-TWO R http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy304/innerwebs/Rane_SIXTY-TWO_R.jpg
DJ Z TRIP inspired me to do major crate digging. His mixes are have so much depth
The 62 looks really good and even better in person. The thing is a beast and I can’t wait to get one.
I think these mixers are gorgeous, and yes, it has me thinking of switching, BUT…… I’m waiting to see the Traktor mixer that Craze leaked from Vestax before I make a call on anything. Plus with the new sample decks and X2 coming out soon, I’ll hold all judgement on what Serato is doing more then Traktor..
Im not one too usually say bad things, but whose idea was it too make it look that way? It looks…just ugly
Great article though!
The 62 ugly?? Eh? Are you looking at the same pics as me? Admitted, the Z-trip one is mingin, but the plain 62 looks good (especially with all that space around the faders) and easy to use. If you really think it’s that bad, just get a styleflip cover with Lady Gaga on it.
I love my ttm57 had it a while still looks new an works great. One of the best mixers in the market,but wouldnt mind gettin a rane 62 lol anyways no need for all that. The rane 61dont see the point but the 62 might get some attension. Samething as the 68 jus in a smaller 2channel format.
who cares how it looks? this place is traktor biased anyways so you’ll all find something to complain about. performance wise and sound quality is tops on both. duh of course it has scratchlive built in. are you not aware of the product and company? the 1/4 inch outs on the 61 produce the same sound as an xlr. look it up. the 62 is a beast. fricken nit pickers. its ugly, the buttons, blah, blah.
This thing is hideous. Like Flava Flav ugly.
The mixer is great but yea the design is oooooogly lolzz.
Definitely going to be pricey. But worth it? Not really. Unless you are in need of a new mixer, serato, and have the EXTRA cash….the 62 will probably only show up in big shows and video forums. The 61 is more or less the 56s remodeled. Not really any big changes. I’d like to see a show comparison of these versus the 56 & 57. Simply because I don’t really see a big change. The 57 buttons where horrible so im sure that got fixed, but other than that…great mixer. Only thing that sucks, is Serato is built in. Why? I know alot of djs who have issues with the 57 buttons or fader or whatever and have to send it back for repairs. So instead of JUST using another mixer, you dont have Serato either. And if you DO have your Serato box, might as well just save money and buy the 56s.
I’m not sure where ur from so that u are possibly affected by the growing trends of nightclubs lately. A lot of places in Florida where I have to spin require me to bring equipment. Walking in with a CDJ 900 and a Sixty-Two would be way easier than having to setup box, cd player and mixer with RCA connects.
i ve been fighting the traktor battle for a long time and had to use serato at the clubs i work at but i truely belive with this and the bridge im comepletly won over traktor is just not putting out the way serato has latley
62 is the most ugly thing I have ever seen… So maybe everybody will be selling the 56/57 and I’ll get a cheap second hand rane soon 😀
Why should the look of the mixer matter more. I thought us real dj’s purchase items for the quality and having a good piece of item that is suitable to handle for the sake of providing great performances. I never heard of a dj purchasing a mixer because of its looks.
I’ve studied product design and there is a direct correlation between a product being aesthetically pleasig and working well.
I will be upgrading and I will have a second hand Gold Rane Empath Grand Master Flash mixer for sale. Also a SL-2 for sale.
Agreed. Hilarious that people would make a decision on how something looks. The placement of controls is based around ergonomics not aesthetics. If they can then make it look ok too. Bonus. Dumb comments. And the one below about correlation. Things don’t work better because they look nicer. If you pay attention to your studies you’d have got the fact that people are generally happier and use a product more forgivingly if it looks better.
I really like the 61. This is the mixer I’ve been waiting for. But, of all the things, I can’t believe it doesn’t have XLR outputs!
I just saw that the Pioneer DJM-T1 price is now listed at $999 – Hard to beat that deal for a two channel mixer with a built in audio device and direct software control.
where at!?
I heard some rumors, 1400 dollars for the 61 2000 dollars for the 62. Although there is a webshop who has the 61 up for 1599 dollars but I guess they are a bit over the real price.
Anyone know the expected price for the Sixty One?
The 61 is $1400, and the 62 is $2000 according to a few different webstores I’ve seen. one had an in depth interview on it’s youtube channel, so I’m thinking they’re accurate. Plus that seems to be in line with their pricing.
The 61 is $1400, and the 62 is $2000 according to a few different webstores I’ve seen. one had an in depth interview on it’s youtube channel, so I’m thinking they’re accurate. Plus that seems to be in line with their pricing.