The Rane ME 60S Stereo Constant-Q Equalizer is a two-channel, 1/3-octave design, housed in a two rack-space unit. It features a Range switch for high slider resolution in the 6 dB mode, equivalent resolution to 45 mm sliders found on the DEQ 60L. The 12 dB mode provides a wide range of control over system audio.
The ME 60S evolved by combining two ME 30 Equalizers in one unit and then embellishing with two adjustable band-limiting filters on the low and high end. Though consuming only 12 watts of power, a Power switch is added to the ME 60S (the ME 30S consumes 7 watts and does not have a Power switch).
The active filter sections feature Rane's innovative constant-Q (constant bandwidth) design. Constant-Q means the bandwidth of each individual filter is guaranteed to be narrow enough to prevent unwarranted interaction between filters, yet wide enough to produce exactly the type of correction curve demanded by even the most unusual acoustic surroundings. This differs dramatically from conventional designs of the past, encumbered with the unfortunate characteristic of changing bandwidth when changing boost/cut amounts.
Front panel controls and indicators include an overall rotary Level control for each channel as well as Overload indicators. Passive pushbutton Bypass switches feature LED indicators, avoiding ambiguity by being on when the unit is Bypassed. (A passive Bypass switch requires no power to operate. This allows completion of the audio path should power fail in the ME 60S.)
The rear of the ME 60S provides an unusually flexible array of connector choices. Inputs and Outputs are electronically balanced designs, capable of unbalanced operation when required. They accept and drive all possible signal levels into normal load impedances. Balanced applications choose between the XLR or 1/4" Tip-Ring-Sleeve balanced connectors. Unbalanced sources also may tie to the ME 60S through mono 1/4" connectors (no ring connection).
Rane
Rane Corporation, founded and incorporated in 1981 in Washington State, is a privately held company. The owners all 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.
The company name was selected from an anagram created from the common letters of the first and last names of the original founders. This particular anagram was selected because it was short, easy-to-say and remember, and they liked the double-entendre possibilities implying wet-links to the Northwest.
The essential ingredients in Rane's successful philosophy are knowledge, integrity, pride and common sense. At Rane, people learn to treat people the way they would want to be treated, to design & build products the way they would want theirs designed & built, and that when something goes wrong, you react quickly and decisively to correct it. It is an old fashioned, common sense way to run a business, based on mutual trust and respect.
Rane started out with four products aimed at small bands, designed to make their live performances better. At the forefront was a unique 12-input, 6-output matrix mixer (MM 12) used to create six different monitor mixes for driving stage monitor speakers. The idea was to help performers hear themselves better. Up to that time, either the small group had no monitors at all, or they were all driven by the same mix. What Rane provided was new, compactly designed, affordable tools to help solve the many problems of on-stage monitoring. Complementing the matrix mixer was the industry's first 6-channel power amplifier (MA 6), and a companion 6-channel headphone amplifier for rehearsal (HC 6). The fourth initial product was a unique combo unit, consisting of a 1/3-octave graphic equalizer and a simple realtime analyzer (RE 27), aimed at giving the performing musician a handy, easy-to-use tool for improving their sound in all venues. In doing all this, Rane established a new price-point for performance, quality and reliability. Rane products were priced well 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 -- five of which are still in production today.
Rane Corporation today is an established innovator in providing problem-solving professional audio tools, affordably priced, with unequalled reliability.
Used Equalizers
Equalizers are used in sound recording to equalize the balance between an electronic signalâ??s frequency components, by boosting or cutting the energy of specified frequency bands. Audio equalization is most widely used in sound recording, although it has many other applications beside that of the recording studio.
There are a number of different types of Equalizers used in music recording. For example, a simple bass control (or low shelf), is able to adjust the gain of low frequency audio signals, without impacting on other frequencies. High self Equalizers (like a treble) on the other hand, are used to adjust high frequency audio signals only.
Parametric Equalizers offers a far greater range of audio equalization functions however. These types of Equalizers are able to make three specific adjustments, something that makes them incredibly versatile. They can be used first of all to adjust the center frequency, and then they can be used to adjust the Q Factor in order to determine how sharp the bandwidth is. Finally, they can also be used to adjust the gain control in order to determine how much a frequency is boosted or cut in relation to frequencies above or below the selected center frequency range.
A Graphic Dynamic Equalizer is similar to a Parametric Equalizer, except that these Equalizers are designed to be much more user-friendly. However, they are also less flexible than Parametric Equalizers. Graphic Equalizers employ a bank of filters to cover as many as 30 different frequency bands in the audio spectrum, depending on the model. The center frequency and Q Factor on Graphic Equalizers is fixed, but the level of these can be adjusted.
