Rane’s latest offering builds on the success of the Four with a host of new features including motorised jog wheels. Greg Scarth checks out what’s new in this flagship Serato controller.
At first glance, the new Rane Performer looks pretty much identical to the Rane Four controller released last year. That’s not a bad start as far as we’re concerned; we were deeply impressed with the build quality and comprehensive feature set of the Four. The Performer is essentially a more advanced version of the Four, becoming Rane’s new flagship controller. Designed for seamless integration with Serato and its Stems functions, it now features motorised vinyl-style platters, upgraded channel fader and crossfader tension control options, plus all-new channel effects taken from the brand’s flagship Seventy mixer.
A quick recap of the Four’s approach is worthwhile before we focus on the Performer, since so much of the feature set is carried over. The Performer retains the Four’s basic design: four-channel control designed for use with Serato DJ Pro (full hardware unlock included). Notably, the Four was also the first controller designed specially for use with Serato Stems, and the real-time options to split tracks into separate vocals, melody, bass and drums felt particularly well implemented, with dedicated Stem-Split buttons and a neatly designed Stems mode for the performance pads.
The Performer retains everything the Four did so well, but adds a bunch of new features, some of which are visually and physically apparent but some of which are less immediately obvious. The biggest news here is the introduction of motorised platters, which are 7-inch vinyl-style designs featuring large 3.5-inch LCD screens in the centre. The other (slightly less obvious) major change is in the mixer section, with the introduction of new and improved Precision Feel faders, whose tension can be adjusted using screws under the face plate and whose behaviour – cut-in curve and reverse – can be adjusted via a menu. The crossfader itself remains the same excellent Mag Four unit as found on the Four, but now benefits from externally adjustable tension rather than requiring you to access a menu. All very meaningful physical additions to the Four setup.
In use, the Performer lives up to expectations. Those motorised platters feature acrylic discs which are magnetically attached to the platters and give a genuinely vinyl-like feel, with tension adjustable using a choice of plastic or felt ‘slip rings’ which sit between the acrylic disc and platter, working essentially the same as slip mats. The large LCD screens give excellent visual feedback including a choice of moving waveforms, progress rings or album art, plus an optional needle marker to help visualise the rotation of the platter. Turning the Scroll/Load encoder momentarily activates Library & Track List view, meaning you don’t need to look up at your laptop to load tracks.
The least visually obvious new feature is the introduction of five new channel effects, which are taken from the brand’s flagship Seventy mixer. These are software effects which complement the 22 hardware effects carried over from the Four’s mixer section. Selecting a channel effect assigns the relevant channel fader to control choices including Fader Filter for filter sweeps, Fader Pitch for re-pitching audio, and Fader Ring for ring modulation effects. A nice little addition to the excellent hardware effects.
The Four was already an excellent controller, with superb build quality and top notch sound, but the Performer really does improve on it in a few significant ways. In fact, there’s no downside to speak of, unless you really prefer static jog wheels. If you don’t care about the motorised jogs, the improved fader features and channel effects might still be worth plumping for the Performer over the cheaper Four.
The most obvious appeal of the Performer will be to scratch DJs, turntablists or anyone who prefers a more vinyl-like feel. The motorised platters are an excellent upgrade, and the improvements to fader feel and tension are also a nice step up from the feel of the Four. In terms of value, the Performer comes in at just under £2,000. Compared to Pioneer’s Serato-focussed, vinyl-style DDJ-REV7 at £1,829, that doesn’t seem unfair at all, especially considering the REV7 is only a two-channel design. The Four is still available for now and remains an excellent controller, representing a significant saving if you’re not too fussed about the new features of the Performer. However, if you’re a Serato user looking for the most seamless controller with all the advantages of the latest hardware tech, the Performer certainly feels like the market leader at this stage.
Greg Scarth
More info/buy