There’s a chance your favorite hardware is not going to work anymore. That’s a very disappointing thing to find out, and it has happened in waves throughout DJ industry history. 

Let’s back up a bit: When digital DJing started to became the norm, most DJs who were serious about their craft got a hold of the Rane SL1 box. It handled the in-and-out routing of analog turntables time code to the computer and returned the music out to an analog mixer.

Then came the gold standard. The mixer to have was the USA-made Rane TTM 57SL. This amazing mixer eliminated the need for the external Rane SL1 Serato box, combining all the routing and connections into one mixer solution. The game was forever changed with this singular piece of DJ gear. 

The TTM 57SL mixer was so revered, that to this day, some DJs don’t want to move on to new gear. There are DJs who still buy, fix, and refurbish older Apple MacBooks in order to use the Rane SL1 and TTM 57SL. These DJs also never upgrade from the old software Serato Scratch Live. All of this just so they can keep the setup they love. 

Time goes on, technology changes, and sometimes the hardware cannot keep up with the advancements of technology. The Rane SL1 and TTM 57SL being discontinued and moved to Legacy product disappointed the whole market. Some DJs speculated it was a ploy to force them into spending more money on a new product because after all this gear still worked like a charm! In reality, they were USB1 technology, and the ins and outs as well the new capabilities of the improved Serato DJ Software would not be something that could be delivered through that port.

Along came a new generation of products for the 64 bit Mac and Windows machines. Rane SL2, SL3, SL4 interfaces for those who still wanted to use an analog mixer. For those who wanted the all-in-one solution, there was a new version of the TTM 57SL, called the TTM57mkII. Also, the Rane Sixty-One, Sixty-Two, Sixty-Four, and Sixty-Eight Mixers.

With this new generation of products, DJs begrudgingly migrated over from their older gear to the new hardware, and as time goes on they would need to upgrade to Serato DJ from Serato Scratch Live.

Fast forward to 2021, with Apple changing their OS faster than Mr. Rodgers changed shoes, it now seems the hardware you may currently be using in your own setup, or that is provided by many bars and nightclubs, may be obsolete very soon!

Here is the latest info direct from Serato: 

“If you are still using older generation RANE gear, it’s important you do not update to macOS Big Sur or use an Apple M1 chip computer with them. Changes in the macOS Big Sur operating system have created a situation where the drivers and firmware can no longer be updated to support this and future operating systems.”

Here is a list of the hardware that is on the road to obsolete:

• RANE SL2
• RANE SL3
• RANE SL4
• RANE Sixty-One
• Rane Sixty-Two
• Rane Sixty-Four
• Rane Sixty-Eight
• TTM57mkII

To continue using these older RANE devices, Serato says to use macOS Mojave or below on non-M1 Mac computers with approved drivers and firmware from RANE.

This is upsetting news for owners of these products. Please be aware of the venue you are spinning at and make sure that they have compatible hardware for you to use. Currently, this seems to only affect the older RANE products, but we’ll keep an eye out if other manufactures also succumb to the Apple M1 Chip and OS development battle.

If you own the newer Rane products and controllers you have nothing to worry about. This seems to be a situation where old tech just can’t hang anymore.

Here is the list of unaffected Rane products.

• Rane Seventy
• Rane Seventy A-Trak Signature Edition
• Rane Twelve MKI and MKII
• Rane One
• Rane MP2015

Has technology obsolescence bit you in the butt? Share your comments below.