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.