The RANE SL4 really is a box of tricks. It is designed to take an analogue signal and digitally process it so that you can control the music in real-time using Serato. This technology is known as DVS. The beauty of this method is the freedom it gives you. Rather than rely on a DJ controller to play the tunes on your laptop, the SL4 allows the use of turntables and CDJ's. Simply connect the box 'in-line' (between your source components and mixer) and hook up the USB output to your laptop, and let it do the rest. If you are a turntable user but want access to your digital library as well, this is a great platform to expand on your collection. The RANE SL4 is available to order
on our website now!
RANE SL4 - Industry Standard DVS
There are four available inputs on the interface. All of these are switchable between phono and line level. To work out which one you need, you need to see what type of output your source media player has. CDJ's always output at 'line' level (in this case, the 'CD' option). Turntables can output either phono or line. It will be at line level if the turntable has a built-in pre-amp that is boosting the signal. Otherwise, you will likely need to choose the 'phono' option. To assign these settings to the input, there is a small switch with the corresponding channel numbers. Simply set these based on your inputs.
Getting Connected
Once your inputs have been selected correctly, you can set them up with the software. The control vinyl or CD simply outputs a digital signal, so the next step is converting this into a live DJ scenario. To do this, we need to give the box some sort of software interface. In this case, you need to connect it via USB to your laptop running Serato. The software is now the hub of everything that the
SL4 is doing. This means that your digital library is accessed the same way it would if you were using a standard DJ controller! Your manipulation of the signal works in sync with the software, so it is as if your music is coming from the decks themselves.
Back-to-Back
There are two USB ports on the SL4. Why? The reason is to allow two DJ's to play simultaneously using only one SL4. The advantages to this include its usage in a back-to-back environment, as well as when changing over between DJs. Let's look at an example. Due to the four inputs on the SL4, one DJ can connect to two channels, and the same for the second DJ (using the other two channels). One DJ connects the SL4 to his laptop, and the other does the same using the spare USB port. Both are running Serato. These DJ's can now play back-to-back in any way they want!
Hi-Tech
The SL4 will find itself in a club setting often. To perform well in this environment, there are two main factors taken into account; sound quality and build quality. The former of these is a factor in what makes it an industry-standard in its category. There is little to no audible loss of quality when integrating the SL4. Considering it is literally taking a signal and outputting a whole new audio track, this is of prime importance. The unit feels solid too, so life on the road will not take its toll. You can rely on this box to take care of your music. DJ's all over the globe use its tried and trusted methods. To join them, head
over to our website and grab one for yourself!
