Rane History
Rane Corporation, founded and incorporated in 1981 in Washington State, is a privately held company. The owners previously worked together in middle management positions at Phase Linear Corporation, a high-end consumer electronics company. With this background, they pooled over 40 years of combined audio experience to create Rane Corporation. Owners became separate department heads based upon their expertise. This organization created an unusually strong structure, since all department heads had a unique owner’s perspective in making it succeed.
Rane started out with four products aimed at small bands, designed to make their live performances better. With these products, Rane quickly established a new price-point for performance, quality and reliability. Rane products were priced below the top high-end equipment yet outperformed and outlasted them, but were still priced significantly above the low-end products—thus creating a new middle ground. A noteworthy testament to Rane’s design significance and reliability reputation, is that in their first two years of production, Rane designed and shipped eight new products—four of which are still in production today.
DJ
Rane first entered the DJ mixer market upon request from Richard Long of Richard Long & Associates (RLA). Richard Long was a famous sound designer for the biggest names in disco. He designed systems for Studio 54, Annabels (London), Regines (a chain of 19 clubs scattered around the world from Paris and New York to Cairo) and many others that were the vanguard of the disco era.
Richard approached Rane and asked them to redesign his famous X3000 crossover using their proprietary technology. This became the X3000A, built exclusively for Richard Long. They also co-designed a DJ equalizer called the Q5000. Based on his successful relationship with Rane, he persuaded them to research the DJ mixer market. They did and produced their first DJ mixer, the MP24 which rapidly became the industry standard.