Raymond Brigleb: Recent Episodes
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I’ve been using the Rane Four for the past week, and as someone who’s spent a few years with the Rane One—and has strong opinions around design and usability—I wanted to share my thoughts.
Build and AestheticsWhile it’s much lighter, the overall build is still solid, no concerns there. Where I have a problem is with the Play button. It’s clicky like many of the other buttons, but that feels totally wrong to me. I vastly prefer the plunger-style button on the Rane One, and indeed the same button I’m used to from a traditional Technics turntable. The clicky button feels pretty terrible by comparison.
Incidentally… the platters are the same size as the Rane One’s. Every reviewer that I read mentioned that the One has 7.2 inch platters, whereas the Four has massive 8.5 inch platters. But they’re the same size! Why would we measure just the diameter of the platter on the one, but the whole footprint of the platter on the Four?
One pro feature they’ve taken away is the physical adjustment to the channel faders (aka “deck contour”) on the front panel, from the One. I don’t use them a ton, but during a performance, it’s nice to be able to adjust those things quickly, just as one does with the crossfader.
The four-channel layout of the Rane Four is also nice, but it’s worth noting that in many respects the Four is just a two-channel controller. You have two channel line-ins, just like the One. You can apply effects to only two channels, just like the One. It feels more like a two-channel controller than a four-channel device.
One thing I do like about the Four is the front panel. They’re using proper switches, not like the awful tiny ones on the One, and they’ve included bumpers to protect the front area during travel. Those are nice improvements. The beat jump and key adjust buttons are really nice to have.
Platters and DisplaysThe platters themselves are serviceable, I’ve used this type of jog before and I’m fine with it. The real problem, however, is the display.
It feels like the resolution of the iPhone before it went retina, or any other older device. And the refresh rate feels like about 30fps, which seems in sync with what Rane suggests you have to set it to in Serato. And maybe this is a Serato or USB limitation, but the resolution and refresh are so poor that it just feels terrible. Both seem like they should be doubled, at least, and a refresh rate like my iPad’s 120fps would be amazing. Because of the lag, it just doesn’t feel very accurate or useful, and it doesn’t even say the name of the song playing!
Furthermore, the nine OLED displays are fine, but a bit difficult to see. I don’t have the greatest vision anymore, but they feel passable. But it does feel like there was a lack of imagination in how to implement them. For instance, when a sample is playing, the background of that pad’s area turns white… then when the sample finishes it turns black again. But why not use that white background to offer a “progress bar?” It’s easy to envision how that could make these so much more useful, but no.
Effects and StemsThe hardware effects are fantastic, and probably in the end would be the biggest differentiator between this and my Rane One. The tiny joystick and knob, used in combination, can add filtering to echo, and all of the effects remember their beat settings when you move around, something that isn’t possible with Serato’s effects. They sound great.
However, the use of effects on stems isn’t everything it could be, because they come after the channel effects in the signal chain, which are provided by Serato, and so you can’t use the channel effect knobs to modulate a filter effect while it’s triggered. This sounds minor, but if you want to flip a paddle to trigger a loop, you can’t further tweak it over time with the filter… you just can’t. The filter knob no longer does anything. So this feels like a missed opportunity, because this could have been possible if both were hardware effects.
One of the most interesting and exciting uses of stems, for me, is what’s provided in the pad mode. And that pad mode can be used on a Rane One with a settings change no problem. I often blend tracks by dropping out parts from one, and adding them from another, which is certainly the most exciting use of stems in my performances. But neither of the Rane Four’s additional pad affordances, neither the Acapella and Instrumental buttons nor the Stem Split mode, account for anything but two parts. So when using the Rane Four, I find myself using the pad modes most of all, which means I don’t really need the Rane Four in this way.
The stem split mode is cool, but also has some quirks. One, in particular, kind of drives me crazy. Let’s say you load a track into your deck, then put it into stem split mode, then take the acapella part (on channel 1 or 2 by default) and scratch with it or otherwise get it out of sync, and you are not in slip mode.
The problem here is getting the tracks back into sync. Right at this moment, you’re controlling deck 1 or 2, with the acapella, so if you hit the stem split button again to get them back into sync, the track jumps to where the vocal is… and loses the beat completely!
You can get around this by switching to channel 3 or 4 first, and then pressing stem split. It’s not that much work, sure, but it’s awkward. And it leaves me wondering why the default behavior is to sync to the active deck, which is the one likely to have diverged from the beat. Indeed, in my experience, it’s always channel 3 or 4 that’s on the beat, and that’s always the channel whose tempo I want to preserve. It’s perplexing that the default behavior goes against this.
ConclusionOverall, the Rane Four is quite a step up in a lot of ways, inferior to the Rane One in a few ways, and has a few odd shortcomings and omissions.
Theme song from another fine episode of Unpacking Coffee. Featuring Zoë and Greta Brigleb singing.
Theme song from this week’s unwieldy episode of the world’s best-dressed coffee show, Unpacking Coffee.
Theme song from this week’s unpredictable episode of the world’s best-travelled coffee show, Unpacking Coffee.
Theme song from this week’s gripping episode of the world’s preeminent coffee show, Unpacking Coffee.
Guided by Voices – Jabberstroker Butthole Surfers – Creep in the Cellar Tortoise – Eros Prince – Dirty Mind Herbie Hancock – Mega Mix Budos Band – Old Engine Oil Neu – Hallogallo Talking Heads – No Compassion Pixies – Dance the Manta Ray The Ventures – The Mighty Quinn Serge Gainsbourg – Ford Mustang … Continue reading May 21, 2019 at Double Dragon
Theme song from this week’s stunning episode of the world’s toppermost-of-the-poppermost coffee show, Unpacking Coffee.
It was a fun set with a couple of technical issues. The recording started a bit late, ended a bit early, and there’s a ton of little skips because of the environment! But lots of fun!
Theme song from next week’s thrilling episode of the world’s premiere coffee show, Unpacking Coffee. Special thanks to Eric Lucas, on drums. He wore glasses that covered up his eyes She was suited in a suitable disguise They roasted coffee, mmm the lows and highs Dapper, dapper and wise. If you’re divided, you balkanize If … Continue reading Dapper & Wise
Theme song from another stellar episode of the world’s premiere coffee show, Unpacking Coffee!
Theme song from another underrated episode of America’s premiere coffee show, Unpacking Coffee!
Theme song from another fine episode of America’s favorite coffee show, Unpacking Coffee!
Theme song I wrote for an episode of Unpacking Coffee. Well me and the lady were spending some time on a beach in Southern Cali on the corporate dime This guy comes up to us says he loves the show I asked him for some coffee and he couldn’t say no He took us to a place on Long Beach … Continue reading Recreational Coffee
Over this weekend Zoë and I decided to work on a song together. I had her write down five topics and we picked “Chocolate Chip Dip” as the subject. She wrote the words pretty quickly and we put it together. Then we decided what the heck, let’s shoot a video too.
Sometimes, in an attempt to get the kids interested in music, I sing about them while they’re in the room, or coax them into recording some vocals. It’s pretty easy to take samples of them and build a song around it. That’s basically what you have here.
A mash-up of the theme songs from Season 2 of Unpacking Coffee. Twenty songs in 5 minutes.
A much calmer take on the vocals, without the autotune effect and stereo double-tracking. I kept this one around because I liked the lighter feel of it. The guitar part is different as well, I felt like even though I was playing the right part, it kind of sounded wrong, which is why I went … Continue reading The Victim (Alternate Vocal)
Meant to mellow things out at the end. I think this was meant to have lyrics to tie it all up in a bow.
Absurd, was meant for an interlude or a video piece in the show we were putting together.
Just pure silliness. I’m not sure if The Frogs or Ween are more to blame for inspiring this.
Somehow I talked Kandace into singing this one, and I’m glad I did. She had a cold, and hated me for making her do the vocals, which were sung directly into the laptop microphone.
Needed a track to develop the story on our concept album a bit. Doesn’t sound like I quite finished the lyrics, but it did the job. It doesn’t seem as though I wanted to let the track end.
I’ve never been quite sure where I stole the chorus at the end from but I’m pretty sure it’s been done before. The first half was built onto that, drawing on Guided By Voices for inspiration. Another surprisingly disciplined mix.
At the tail end of my band days I had recorded a demo of this track and always meant to come back to it. Under the “influence” I laid down some overwhelming noises, and had the good sense to come back and edit it the next day. The result is one of my more disciplined … Continue reading The Victim
Thus begins an unlikely “concept album”… about a river tsunami. And what such album would be complete without a song about a girl?
I believe Michael Paulus is playing the actual instrument. I’m just playing around in the background.
A play on the word heroin, but it was inspired by a gilded statue in Portland that I don’t remember the name of, so this seemed apropos.
Couldn’t help myself, we just had all those nice instruments sitting there, and who doesn’t love a reprise.
I believe I had just gotten a copy of Reason at the time, which had fantastic evolving synth sounds. Play it loud… but not too loud. It’s a loud track. If you’ve ever listened to Medicine, you know what I was aiming for.
Not much point but the playing-with of the knobs on the devices. The real goal was the video for the show.
During 2002 and 2003, I curated a number of video “shows” in Portland. At first they were all at Bar of the Gods, and so I wrote a theme song (and produced a video). A bit tongue in cheek.
I feel like we got about halfway through building this track, and both RC and I had added a bunch before it got left behind.
The political theme, and lines like “we are patriotic by design,” were surely rooted in the first term of George W. Bush. It was 2002; after all. This was a demo and I played many of the instruments myself, but Mike Squires pitched in with bass and lead guitar.
This is a very slick version of a song that was in our set for some time, and that had been written more or less a couple of years prior.
This must be my third or fourth take on this song, now with an actual band. It’s certainly well-developed at this point.
Didn’t dive too deep; came up jaunty. It wasn’t easy to fit “inevitable” in like that but if Dylan can do it, so could I.
This might’ve been among the first songs that RC and I wrote together. Here it is for you now, polished like a pebble.
Another song we developed from a demo of mine, this one features us beating on the air ducts with sticks to make percussion loops.
Revisiting an earlier demo, this time it sounded a lot more like it should. RC plays great drums, I do my best Elvis Costello impression on the keys.
During the year I was making a lot of this music, I also spent a lot of time at this bar. They also hosted my video show every month. So I wrote them a theme song. Like Cheers. Just like Cheers.
This song would be rewritten as “Tellina Lie” and performed band-style. Vocals in bridge just had to go.
Pitch for a theme song for Sara Lee Corporation, but the song was too “edgy” and was not actually “played” for them.
Tried to rework a year or two later with a band, didn’t work. Too moody. This song wants to be a happy one. So smile already.
Around this time I’d started recording some music with a band, and I had found myself unemployed, so I took advantage of all that free time to make an album. It was a concept album only in the sense that I made the whole thing in a short period of time, so it kind of … Continue reading Loveshirt
We kind of considered this the end of the “album.” Seemed like we were ending on the right note.
Not only did this track provide us with a name for our act, but the laid-back groove gave us our second video, which is sufficiently abstract that I think it holds up pretty well.
This song developed as it went, and gathered meaning in its abstract nature like a snowball rolling downhill. At an epic length of almost six minutes it was our longest track, it kept growing organically until some kind of bizarre feedback-drenched guitar solo came out the other end.
I think we were playing a melodica. Neat instrument. I didn’t realize when I bought it that it was often associated with dub, but it’s fun to play.
“Me, myself, and my microphone” sang Lee, basically just freestyling over the beat. We did a bit of editing and called it a track!
On a bit of a whim, Lee Armstrong and I ended up making a hip hop album in 2002. I had been playing around with making some beats in Reason, but didn’t have much of a direction. We decided to use the equipment and beats that were sitting around to some good use. We recorded … Continue reading The Kameleon
This was one of the more successful songs we worked on together. We’d get asked about this song years later. It was a crowd favorite. Jordan Hudson plays drums. If you’re curious, you can listen to the earlier demo version.
I had recorded this earlier by myself, but felt that it would be a good fit for a band. It was a lot of fun to play live, and easy enough that I could actually manage it with my limited guitar skills, so it was a mainstay at our shows.
Sunlite was the second song I wrote just for the band we were calling Bootyproof. Having done a poppy rock track earlier with Officially, we were feeling like this was our groove. We had started to play shows, and these tracks anchored the set. We were both also going through our own relationship issues at … Continue reading Sunlite
This was kind of a half-finished version of this song, but it took a long time to build so here you go. I think we were kind of finding our footing still at this point.
One of the first songs I think I actually recorded with RC. Early 2001 in Portland. Lyrics just kind of came while we were working out the rhythm in the studio, and we decided to take turns singing. We kind of play around at the end, so in a sense it felt like a “warm-up … Continue reading No More Waiting
The bass line here was so awkward that when I asked RC to play it, he thought I was crazy. “Bill Berry felt the same way about that song on Green,” I told him, to which he responded “Bill Berry ended up not playing that drum part.” Touché. I think the working title was “The … Continue reading The Big Mystique
I joined Stumptown Coffee as the first employee in 1999, and soon started playing music with RC Gartrell. At some point it was decided to record an album in the first location after hours, and we formed a band to contribute a track. We chose the name Bootyproof, because it was funny. 🤔 This was … Continue reading Officially
The inner dialogue of our conflicted protagonist. Another piece intended as part of a “concept album” which I had actually made a booklet and story to go along with, now lost. Recorded on the same day as Word Is Out.
Driving guitar sound, and yeah you can tell I used to smoke. Part of a series of songs I wrote as a sort of romantic “concept album,” but, you know how those things go.