Rane bought by inMusic

[Jon]

http://djworx.com/breaking-rane-sold-inmusic/

 

Looks like a lot of their current staff are losing their jobs and a few engineers will be working for inMusic.

 

I wish them all the very best, all the team I've met have been lovely and very supportive sharing user videos etc and , while there has been the odd issue with fader carriers and cue point buttons on the 62, their products have been high quality and innovative and I hope the remaining engineers are able to continue producing such products in the future.

[DJ Rock Well]

I was just reading this story.

 

Personally, I don't think it's a good thing at all. As you pointed out, the last Rane mixers already featured the odd component that appeared to be downgraded from the predecessors that built their rep and I think that will be a drop in the ocean compared to what comes now.

 

Looking at their mishandling of the Akai Professional brand after acquisition backs up my theory... After the major blunder of replacing the perfectly working existing pad design for some utter shit on the MPC1000, they corrected it only after a third party stated making proper ones for it. Even then, their hardware was plagued by silly cheap components failing after they were downgraded - tact switches, jog wheels, etc. Plus there was the issues with cards not reading, corrupting and similar, and software for their MPCs that was woefully limited and buggy as hell. Ironically, the one thing that gave the 2500 and 1000 some life was when an ex employee (JJ) started making third party OSs that actually did what they should have done all along. They even updated their own to include a few of the JJ OS features, after his led the way! They never seemed to learn either, from the first 1000 OS which didn't even have the old 2KxL slice function all the way to the first OS for the 5000 that Just Blaze wrote the most damning rant about I have ever read. They even duplicated their own mistakes - once again downgrading the pads on the 500 and MPK series, so they were near useless. Plus they were the masters of not supporting products and ditching their latest invention almost as soon as it dropped, certainly before they actually got round to making it work properly. I could go on...

 

Of course, they did evetually ditch hardware samplers altogether. Which was definitely not what their loyal fan base wanted. Then it took a rival company inventing the computer based hybrid solution (Maschine) and selling it successfully for a couple of years and significantly eating into their market share before they saw what was happening and 'invented' the system themselves.

[DJ Rock Well]

#rant

[arkei]

I keep getting the message that djworx is "malicious sources/malnets" over here at the swatch group...

 

As I read on DJTT the owners are retiring. I'd have preferred that they would have stayed, then at least their vision would've better represented.

 

But who knows...

[Guest Symatic]

moving the manufacturing to the far east - that'll fix everything!

[DJ Rock Well]

Pairing lower cost components with cheaper manufacturing always produces a winner...

 

If we're really lucky we they might even employ the man who designs Denon gear to do the new Rane stuff. True story: every bit of Denon kit is designed by one man who actually eats all the surface components (lights, buttons, knobs, etc) and then sicks them onto a bit of black metal, takes a quick snap and its job done.

[Gizmo]

I keep getting the message that djworx is "malicious sources/malnets" over here at the swatch group...

 

As I read on DJTT the owners are retiring. I'd have preferred that they would have stayed, then at least their vision would've better represented.

 

But who knows...

 

Not according to Google: https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagnostic/#url=djworx.com

 

Nor on my internal security software blacklist checkers either. Many sites get false positives, especially on corporate firewalls, which are notoriously picky. My malware scanners (three of them) also report the site as clean. Is it Sophos?

[arkei]

We got Promt Agent...but the Swatch Group is notoriously suspicous anyways, but it used to work, well before, you know what

[Flexinoodle]

Not entirely sure this will be as bad as some think, InMusic have been on the upturn of late, need to see how this pans out.

The owners where not particularly young go getters, at some point people like to retire and enjoy the money they have made, in the same situation, i bet everybody here would take the biggest cheque.

Edited July 6, 2016 by Flexinoodle

[Deft]

Shame they couldn't do some kind of management buyout / cooperative - though they would have explored it I'm sure. Don't worry peeps, now that we have Brexited we will be making this kind of stuff ourselves.
I'm tempted to snap up a load of Rane gear for archival purposes.

[Jon]

Not entirely sure this will be as bad as some think, InMusic have been on the upturn of late, need to see how this pans out.

The owners where not particularly young go getters, at some point people like to retire and enjoy the money they have made, in the same situation, i bet everybody here would take the biggest cheque.

 

oh for sure. Denon's latest controller/standalone unit hybrid is really interesting too.

[Guest rasteri]

The majority of the 60+ workforce will be “permanently displaced” at the end of July.

If they're getting rid of the employees who know how to make good kit, they'll stop making good kit.

 

Expect Rane-branded karaoke machines by the end of the year.

[Jon]

 

The majority of the 60+ workforce will be “permanently displaced” at the end of July.

If they're getting rid of the employees who know how to make good kit, they'll stop making good kit.

 

Expect Rane-branded karaoke machines by the end of the year.

 

 

It says some of the engineers are staying though, which holds promise that they'll keep making good kit maybe?

[Flexinoodle]

InMusic had issues with the Akai brand, they lustened to customers and now they are pushing forward, they stole a massive march on the competition by teaming up with Big Tick software for their new ketboards that are leaps n bounds ahead of anything else in terms of VST support.

 

There is one thing people should keep in mind, the general consensus of the internet informed is Behringer are shit and InMusic are shit, but, you are going to struggle to play a live gig where you arent relying on something by Behringer and you are unlikely to own a studio with nothing by InMusic in it haha

[props to the finger]

The handling of the Akai brand brings fucking manly tears of sadness to my eyes. Ok, they're quite girly and pathetic tears.

 

Pretty sad to see Rane calling it quits as an independent entity, but if the owners want to retire then you can't really fault them for cashing in.

 

On a larger scale it kinda feels like a fucking travesty, considering their legacy and how they managed to design solid, enjoyable and easy-to-use gear.

 

Still my experiences with their products were mostly limited to one product. the last piece of gear from them I could afford in good conscience (ie. still have money for food afterwards) was a used Rane TTM56S for $400 a couple if years ago. Love that gray, ugly brick to death and probably the best mixer ever in terms of the core design, even 15 years later all they did was remove the shitty alternate fader curves between the 56/56i and 56s. Shots fired, brakka brakka.

 

Oh, and they had amazing customer service. That part will always be missed.

 

RIP Rane. I'll probably miss seeing your products and not owning them, knowing they were of actual quality.

[Dubba Dutchdj]

Yeah I find this news very depressing, although I believe Rane have taken a teeny step back in terms of hardware quality since the original 56, the sound quality, customer care and ethos has always remained second to none. They've done an incredible job staying at the top table for as long as they have while following the least consumer ish model in a hugely consumer based industry, ultimately there a tiny company amongst business behemoths, it's jus gonna get increasingly harder for them to continue at the standards they've set while remaining competitively priced, kudos to the owners for cashing in before it was to late.

 

Pioneer dj first blood perhaps? aka I hope S9 owners are happy with them selfs.....

 

You'd a thought InMusic brought Rane for the pedigree the brand caries, so in that respect there gonna wanna continue with elements of what makes Rane, Rane. But in reality every product they make from now is gonna be another step away from the original mindset of the company.

 

Either way its gonna be fascinating to see what the first few products Chinese Rane makes, I'd imagine that Dark overlords/Pioneer are more concerned about the competition Rane under InMusic can now bring.

[Guest rasteri]

Chinese manufacturing is actually much better than western manufacturing for the same money.

 

The problem is, there's a level of crap manufacturing that's only available in China, and it's gonna be real tempting for the new Rane management to use that.

[kebzer]

The history of InMusic management with legacy brands is absolutely heartbreaking. They destroyed AKAI and Mackie, both with almost cult-like customers, and they did nothing to upgrade Alesis or Numark. Nobody gives a shit about Denon trying to push themselves as hi-end, ain't nobody crazy to buy into that.

 

I'm 99% sure they will destroy Rane too. They will try to migrate the hi-end part of Rane into other products, only to end up with homologated mixers all over the place and under various banners, with zero quality assurance (based on their current manufacturing standards).

[Guest Symatic]

Chinese manufacturing is actually much better than western manufacturing for the same money.

 

The problem is, there's a level of crap manufacturing that's only available in China, and it's gonna be real tempting for the new Rane management to use that.

 

true true - i was mentioning the manufacturing thing because of brands like Allen and Heath who started manufacturing in china, obviously went with the 'wow thats CRAZY cheap!' manufacturer and instantly dropped the quality of their products.

[DJ Rock Well]

I think they'll want to expand their customer base for Rane and I think sadly, they'll do it by making products cheaper via reduced component and manufacturing costs.

 

Lower cost components and poor quality control were amongst their sins committed to Akai Pro and Mackie, so I guess that's coming here. Regardless of components, etc. I always feel that when a company goes from small boutique with in house manufacturing to big corporation with overseas manufacturing, that quality control suffers. Throw in a bit of poor customer service to boot. Even when Vestax shifted manufacturing, quality control went awry.

[djdiggla]

Too bad for Rane... my expectation is the quality will decline. I guess Mixars is the new Rane now.

 

 

 

I keep getting the message that djworx is "malicious sources/malnets" over here at the swatch group...

As I read on DJTT the owners are retiring. I'd have preferred that they would have stayed, then at least their vision would've better represented.

But who knows...

 

Not according to Google: https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagnostic/#url=djworx.com

 

Nor on my internal security software blacklist checkers either. Many sites get false positives, especially on corporate firewalls, which are notoriously picky. My malware scanners (three of them) also report the site as clean. Is it Sophos?

 

 

Yeah sometimes I get it for DJWorx at work.

[Gizmo]

 

 

Yeah sometimes I get it for DJWorx at work.

 

I'll tell you what it might be — if they're blocking on a server IP basis, there were some websites on my host's server that were... shall we say of specialist interest. It was moved a couple of days ago though, and is only colocated with two other sites now, both of which are legit. Nothing at all to do with grannies anymore.

[Flexinoodle]

Wait, is everybody here saying everything from InMusic is low quality crap, My MPC Studio is an amazing piece of kit for the price, the VIP technology is out of this world and the Advance keyboards are far from crap quality, have i just been extremely lucky ?

 

Most likely scenario here, Rane stays high end, the tech used in Rane is bubbled down to their lower end brands (exactly how the VIP tech has done)

[djdiggla]

Wait, is everybody here saying everything from InMusic is low quality crap, My MPC Studio is an amazing piece of kit for the price, the VIP technology is out of this world and the Advance keyboards are far from crap quality, have i just been extremely lucky ?

 

Most likely scenario here, Rane stays high end, the tech used in Rane is bubbled down to their lower end brands (exactly how the VIP tech has done)

 

Did they make the APC too? I really like mine.

[Jam Burglar]

I don't see anything good coming from this except maybe the brand survives longer than it otherwise would have. Anybody who's not in the U.S. probably doesn't get it, but Rane's customer service through the factory is legendary. They would fix anything short of bullet holes through the faceplate under warranty. The team of people there was just top notch and took real pride in their work. I bought my TTM-54 16 years ago and talked to Chris Duncan about the specs at that time. I actually got thoroughly dissed for buying a Rane over a Vestax 05 pro but as the years went by more and more people figured out Rane made quality shit. 15 years later when that TTM-54 finally crapped out I called up Chris and he pointed me in the right direction to get it fixed. I recapped the power supply myself and it's running strong again. My original TTM-56 with the fat knobs is still kicking ass. I just bought a 57mkii from Vekked and Rane was really cool about honoring the warranty. You will never get that type of reasonable, person-to-person contact from these big ass companies. The loss of jobs and the loss of that corporate culture is a real tragedy. There are not that many companies left like that in the world. I sincerely hope they don't lay everyone off and move manufacturing to China but I doubt Gizmo would be reporting that if he didn't have good sources. The whole thing has me pretty gutted.