"Distortastudio" Colour Design Pt. 3 July 9, 2015 16:39
Back in April, we began designing a new Colour module to emulate the sound of an old Tascam 4-track tape machine.
When we left off in the second blog post, we had sketched out the basic circuit for the bright, crunchy mixer-section distortion and were all set to begin work on the dark, gooshy tape section.
Well, the universe had other plans. That week I heard from Jens at Eisen Audio, who designed the TM79 Colour. After reading my blog post, Jens revealed that he'd been working on a new cassette-inspired Colour that was "obvious and shitty and musically relevant and reminiscent—at least in some dimensions—of an Aiwa Walkman I had in the 90s."
Now there's a lot about this business I don't know. But I do know the world probably doesn't need two cassette Colours coming out around the same time. So Jens and I decided to join forces to make two separate-but-complementary Colours: a 4-track mixer distortion (Distortastudio) and a cassette tape and electronics emulator (currently named "LOWSPEED"). This way users can have the mixer and tape distortions on their own, or combine them for the ultimate 4-track Colour.
Our Colour, the Distortastudio, is dangerously close to being done. Parts and PCBs are on their way—we just need to put them into kits and write the documentation.
The final Distortastudio prototype
Jens has some more tweaking to do on his Colour, but initial listening tests have been really promising.
The most recent "LOWSPEED" prototype
Thanks for following along, and please stay tuned for the upcoming launch of the Distortastudio kit!