Gear Designers Take On the Colour Format July 2, 2014 16:30

It was the spring of 2012: Facebook was still a private company, Psy was a modestly successful Korean rapper little-known outside his home country, and the project code-named "Colour" was a multi-stage analog saturation device with three built-in distortion stages. Then everything changed. In June we asked for your ideas for saturation stages; you gave us 40 great ones. Then inspiration hit: what if we made the saturation stages socketed? Here's what I wrote in the next blog post on August '12:
"This changes everything. The “Colour” we’re designing now is not so much a single piece of gear as a platform for experimentation and discovery. The user will now have the option to choose which colors to include in her palette and, this being DIY after all, the ability to create her own. And the DIY community will have the opportunity to design and release their own 'colours.'"

Now two years later, we're seeing that vision come true. Since Colour kits began shipping in April we've seen a flurry of development for the format. Here are four of the Colours from third-party developers that we're really excited about: KIT_017_angle__70133.1403028641.500.659

"CMOS Steezer" from TB Audio: Available from from the store From the mad genius who packed the Roland Dimension D Chorus and API 550A EQ into 500-series kits comes a hi-fi fuzz Colour based on the unique CMOS inverter topology. More info, kits, and sound samples available at the DIYRE Store.tm79_angle__62862.1403207012.500.659

"TM79" from Eisen Audio: Available from the store Eisen Audio, whose credits include designs for Purple Audio, AwTAC, and NonLinearAudio, is one of the premier design firms working in analog pro audio. Their contribution to the Colour format is a multi-stage saturator packed with 70's console-and-tape sound. Kits, sound samples, and some wonderful notes from the designer are available at the DIYRE Store. TM79 Colour Kit - $54.95 "Colourupter" from XQP Audio: In development XQP is currently working on converting their awesome "545 Optical Disrupter" into a Colour module. You can learn more about the Disrupter at XQP's website. LTL-Colour-BG-1368x770

??? from Louder Than Liftoff: Coming soon Louder Than Liftoff has been working behind the scenes on not one but three Colours all to be released at the same time. LTL has not revealed any details about their Colours yet but... is that a real tube I see at the bottom of this page? Exciting stuff! We invite you to get in on the fun by building your own Colour 500-Series Palette kit. PS. Are you working on your own Colour design? Check out the Designer's Toolkit and drop us a line to discuss your idea.