I don't know about anyone else, but this just seems too good to be true. The ability to be able to mix and match your modules however you want to. The price is right....Image putting three CFX Transformers in Series for a huge Iron sound. Or putting a Tube module at the end of the chain. Or even a Red Dot Transformer at the end.....

Has anyone had any experience with the DIYRE Colour Palette?

I had a chance to check out Implode and Rogue-Tec Air, both were really cool.

Is it worth the price? Do you see this being really big?

I think it's already pretty big. I believe there are more than a thousand Palettes out there. I do know the modules I make are very consistent sellers (especially Implode and Pentode) and I plan to devote resources to making new modules this year.

That reminds me... I need to build my new Palette MkII kits.

Brad

I just got a Pentode off of your Reverb page. I love weight so I got two CTXs going into the Pentode at the end. This should give me that iron weight with a tube warmth.....

The guy who sold me the CTXs said to be careful of gain staging though, because if you don't hit it at the right signal it can sound bad.

Can you elaborate on this? I plan on going through my CAPI VP28s into the CTX+CTX+Pentode Colour Palette.

Both strike me as great values, especially once you've invested in the system.

I would love to see, maybe, a real Carnhill transformer put in a palette.

Hey man

I've got the palette. I've got the 15iPS tape, fuzz and telephone distortion.

Here are my thoughts on all three

Fuzz - A bit useless. Good on bass guitar, but to me the bottom end gets out of control before it gets "fuzzy" enough, so you'd have to EQ on the way in. It's either understated or over the top. It is DIY though so could be my fault...but not really reminiscent of those great guitar fuzz pedals.

Telephone distortion - SICK. Especially in parallel. Awesome on anything. Very creamy analog sound, great on keys too.

15IPS - Tonally similar to my Chandler Germanium pre (has a bunch of germanium diodes in it). Not really in the same league bandwidth wise. Sort of shapes the sound to bit a little bit mid scooped but reeeaallly rich harmonically. Have only found a couple of uses for it on drum loops so far but when it's right it's RIGHT.

I think if something seems too good to be true it probably is. But they're fun to make and you can get some very cool unique sounds out of them.

Bumpity Bump!

I'd love to hear some more opinions on the Colour platform.


Andy

I just ordered my palette.

How you liking it? You should check out the colours designed by Eisen Audio.

Well unfortunately for me I had to send them back. I ordered the Pentode and it was so sensitive that it reacted to the slots closest to my RND R6's power supply. I know this to be true, because when I put them in other slots, the noise floor disappeared.

For significant color you really need to stack as they are subtle. They did color the sound, but if you are not a DIYer, the cost ends up being about the same as a high end unit. High end units can have two Carnhill transformers and two OpMps, with gain staging, impedence, etc...if you try to recreate those in DIY's you end up spending just as much.

I'm waiting until the format matures a bit more and hopefully allows a way to pop in and out the modules.

I've found the Coulour Palette to be a lot of fun and a little bit useful. I've got the Primary Colors bundle (15ips, Cinemag Transformer, Jfet Transistor) and the Avenson MN-50 so far.

I love the idea of switching them in and out and the DIY mod-ability, but I'm a liiittle underwhelmed overall.

Palette itself - I'm not next to it right now, but I believe it's got about 6db of makeup gain available. When I'm really pushing something I find I'm losing more than that much signal, so I've got to mess with gain staging to make up for it - sometimes that leads to some ugly oversaturation or clipping.

CTX - This is the biggest success. It is very subtle but I LOVE the sound of it. It sounds like very harsh digital clipping if I push it too far, which is easy to do. I've considered getting 2 more of these to fill the palette for really dense sounds.

15IPS - This one is also easy to go too far with and can get ugly about 75% of the way through the pot. It's not as subtle as the CTX though, and has some nice useable transient shaping and saturation in the mid range area.

JFET Transistor - Not a fan. It sound more like outright distortion than saturation to me. Too much too fast. Also not vastly different from anything you could easily get in-the-box.

MN-50 - This one is tricky. It needs to be biased via two small trim pots. Overall it sounds pretty good. It's fun. I really like it as an extreme "listen-mic" sort of compression to use on rooms or snares in parallel, EXCEPT I can't quite find the sweet spot. As soon as I get the pumping intensity I love from it, I also get very weird artifacts on the release - crazy volume swells and dips. Most likely it's my own error, but it's definitely got a small sweet spot.

I'll probably continue with it because it's so much fun and I love the possibilities the DIY scene offers. It's not too much of an investment to get a cool sounding piece to play with.

I may give them another try though! It has great potential.

I just started mine today. Pretty easy so far and I'm a noob at this. I'll let you know how it goes. I only has an hour to kill so I didn't get too far but I'll get back at it tonight.

Do it.

You gotta DIY it. Paying someone to put it together kinda defeats the purpose. It's fun and rewarding and costs very little.

Just to add a correction, I believe you mean the Avenson Audio MN-50, MN-50 Smash Compressor Colour – DIYRE, this one?
I work for Avenson Audio and did the design for this colour module, so could answer any questions on this if you have them. I will say, be sure you are experimenting with switching between the High and Low jumper when trying to dial in your sound, as you may be getting more artifacts from the compressor if you're just keeping the jumper in the High pins. Using the Low setting should give you more usable range, especially on generally louder source material like drums.
Which version did you buy, the PCB only (kit version) or the fully assembled?
If you purchased the PCB only you may also try swapping out the J202 JFET until finding one on the lower end of it's IDSS range, the original circuit called for a 2SK117-Y which is in the range of 1.2-3 mA IDSS, whereas the J202's have a slightly higher range. If you are more skilled with a soldering iron you can also just swap the J202 for the SMD 2SK209-Y which is a surface mount part replacement for the harder to source 2SK117-Y. Pay attention to the pin assignments on the board and the datasheet for the 2SK209-Y to orient that correctly on top of the through hole JFET pads. Thanks for buying and sharing your experience with our Colour!

Thanks for the correction. You're absolutely right, it's Avenson Audio, sorry about that.

I'll definitely look into those changes. I haven't given up on it, just have to take the time to get tinkering again. So far I've gotten glimpses of the exact sound I'm looking for from it, so I'm sure I'll get there with some effort.

Hi everyone,
sorry for digging out an old thread. Has anyone compared these to Metric Halos "characters"? Do these colour modules sound better? The Metric Halo preamps are very clean and it would be interesting to use these to add some color if they sound better than the MH character "plugins".

Cheers

I'll chime in now that I've had mine a while. I loved it so much on drums I got a second one so I could process stereo stems for mixing. They're so flexible. You can really customize, different Colours, arrangements, how you feed them...and you get far more satisfying tone than any plugin. The age old debate comes down to "convenience, or tone?" And if tone is your goal there is no contest. I got the TM79, DOA and 15IPS. They're all great, but the 15IPS is my favorite. Implode is really great too even though the tiny internal controls are cumbersome. I can't wait to try more Colours. I also got DIYRE's new EQs and they're even more so game changers. The only other "pultec" I own is (don't laugh) Waves' "Puigtec" and the DIYRE smokes it. SMOKES IT!

With products like these at their price point I don't think I'll ever spend money on plugins again. Not that I don't rely on and appreciate them, but as a Logic user, as usable as the stock tools are IMO it makes no sense to spend $100 on some so so "emulation" when there is real hardware like this. And whenever some "plugin special" catches my eye for this supposed "neve EQ" for $50, or $25 for that "analog saturation" I'm like, 'Nah, I'd way rather get a new Colour for the Palettes.'

I built a couple of the CP5 pres and added the 15 ips modules- they're kind of one trick ponies, but useful when you want that trick, especially for the price point. I had a pair of Colour Palettes with Cinemag, Implode and Tone-Loc, but just didn't find myself using them... never seemed dramatically "better" enough in tone to not just use a plugin, IMHO. Most of the modules strike me as subtle to the point of uselessness.

I have quite a few Colour modules. Here are my impressions:

Implode!: Fantastic! I use this as an insert on my primary vocal channel during mixdown. Since I always use the same settings (4:1, slowest attack, fastest release; a perfect compliment to the Brute I use during tracking) I never need to mess about with the trim pots. This thing sounds far better than the CLA-76 to my ears.

RogueTec Air: Also fantastic for vocals. I generally use an SM7 (flat) for lead vox, and this unit set to boost 12kHz by ~5dB gives me a finished, airy sound without being irritatingly bright or sibilant.

Pentode: A great thickening agent. I don't generally drive it too hard... just having it in the chain does something magical to the low mids and it smooths the highs as well.

Pulse: Love it! I have it configured as a send effect, set to my favorite slap-back setting (~133ms, no repeats) and like it much more than the Kramer tape delay that I replaced it with. Definitely sounds like a legit tape delay.

MN-50: This is my defacto parallel snare compressor... so fat and snappy!

I've also used the 15IPS, transformer, and JFET modules, which were all fine and surly have some applications where they shine, but the modules I've listed above are the true standouts to me. I've literally replaced my entire go-to vocal chain with these modules!

Thanks for the great reviews, Jesse! I'm really stoked to hear you are getting so much mileage out of your Louder Than Liftoff modules. And I'm especially smiling that you are digging Pulse. I think it's definitely an underrated module...a total sleeper IMHO. It really does sound like a tape delay to my ears, too. I spent a lot of time actually A/B'ing with my tape deck set up to do slapback and dialed it in so that it felt the same. It's tape echo on a button.

I actually have a sound clip somewhere comparing Implode to a UA 1176LN. I could post if if anyone is curious to hear it.

I wanted to let everyone know that I just put my two new modules, FET Filter and Mass Drivr, into production. So they should be shipping by early-mid May I think. I think you all are going to really like Mass Drivr...

Brad

Just read in the indispensable modules-thread how much love there is for the Rnd 542.

Has anyone tried to get the same sound from Colour modules? I imagine that the 70's Character Colour Bundle with 15ips, TM79 and DOA could get pretty close, but I've never worked with the RND 542, so I can't tell for sure.

That's pretty much my assessment. I had the 542 to try and was a bit underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, I like them, but for the money, not worth it IMO. I got the "70's character" Colour bundle and I love it. One is not an exact substitute for the other, but they do similar and equally satisfying warmth/saturation "tape" thing imo, and to be honest, tho I could be biased(because of cost and the fact that I built the Colour, which I think can give you a special affection) I think I prefer the Colour Palette over the 542. The 15IPS in particular really does it for me.

The RND 542 combines subtle compression with silk, which is an attempt to sound like a Neve 1073 transformer pre being driven hard. It sounds good, but not really like tape IMO.

Do the Colour modules only work with the DIYRE 500-Series? Or are there other (DIY) options that allow you to use them?
Would be useful for people who arent invested in the 500-Series platform

I think a standalone stereo rackmount unit with 2-3 modules per channel, with individual drive and blend controls, with switchable metering would be a hit.

Added bonus would the ability to change the order of the modules, and perhaps inclusion of a bandaxall EQ.

The right company to put something out like this is Louder Than Liftoff. Perhaps a Silver Bullet MKII, with DIYRE Colour Module interoperability. They're already a step ahead by incorporating it their new Chroma preamps.

I'd get something like that in a heartbeat...

last year i built a 1u rack including:

2 x tm79
2 x ctx
2 x jet
2 x pentode

they were wired in stereo so it was a 4 stereo channel (8mono).

I was decided to build blend control but I gave up this idea after a small talk with Peterson from DIYRE. As these modules produce a subtle effect it would be a waste of space and efforts to fit 8 blend controls.

I used to run stems through them. Having a patchbay is convenient so I can hook them up in series, just one module, etc).

Here is the thread of my build, I also built an external PSU wired for 220-240V:

https://groupdiy.com/index.php?topic...2053#msg772053

I think the blend control is actually an extremely useful feature especially for compressor modules like Implode and the Toneloc. I have implemented such a feature into my new Chroma 500 series module, which as @ 12tone implied does indeed have a Colour slot. Chroma is essentially a single channel incarnation of the Silver bullet with an analog plugin expansion slot. There is both drive (C-DRV) and blend (C-MIX). Because of the unique way I've implemented the blend control I'm able to turn equalization Colours like Rogue-Tec Air or FET Filter into fully variable EQ plugins. This is a total game-changer for the Colour platform IMHO.

Big Bear Audio makes the MP1 and MP1+ which are fully assembled mic preamps with a Colour slot.

I'm really really close to launching Chroma... I think this will be the year that Colour breaks out of the DIY scene into the mainstream. Stay tuned!

Brad

Sorry I missed some information. When I asked Peterson about blend control I referred to modules like CTX, PENTODE, TM79 and JFT as they are supposed to bring some subtle saturation.

Blend control is a must when using very special modules like compressors and FX like Pulse

I figured that's what you meant, but I find even for those modules you can achieve some effects that aren't possible with drive alone. I choose to give an additional 6 dB of Drive gain on Chroma so that some more extreme effects are possible with modules like Pentode, TM79, CTX, Mass Drivr. Being able to blend in the dry signal really opens up some creative possibilities. For instance driving a bass guitar really hard into Mass Drivr so that it's totally fuzzed out and then blending in the dry signal is pretty cool.

Brad