Do you ever pine for the cheap and dirty, but somehow musical and inspiring, sound of your old portable 4-track? The Distortastudio brings that sound to your Colour Palette without a big tape machine taking up space in your studio.
The Distortastudio's circuitry is directly inspired by the channel strip of a late-80's TASCAM machine. It even features the same opamps, obtained NOS (new old stock) and available in a limited quantity.
Just like your old 4-track, you can run the Distortastudio at low gain for subtle solid-state dirt or at high gain for trashy distortion and hiss.
FEATURES
- Four stages of channel strip circuitry
- Original, NOS opamps
- Compatible with the Colour format
- Black PCB
- Full, step-by-step assembly instructions
For more info, check out our series of posts about the Distortastudio design process:
Samples
Resources
- Assembly Guide (v1.1, most recent)
- Assembly Guide (Rev A)
- Schematic
- Design process blog posts:
Customer Reviews
The Distortastudio Cassette 4-Track Colour from DIY Recording Equipment absolutely nails the sound I was able to get as a kid using my stereo equipment "incorrectly".
Back then, I discovered this magic by plugging my guitar straight into a cheap cassette tape deck and pushing it well past what it was designed to handle. The result was a nasty, gritty, compressed, harmonically rich chaos that just felt right. Recently, I bought an old cassette deck just to get that sound back into my life.
Having that same character distilled into a Colour module, and in a 500-series format no less, is a total game changer. Instead of hunting down consumer gear well past it's prime and having to use adapters, DI boxes, and custom cables to interface -10dB RCA plugs to a professional studio setup, this sound is now permanently on standby in my rack and ready to go at a moment’s notice.
I’ve known Peterson Goodwyn since his days frequently joining us on The Home Recording Show podcast, and I’ve been a huge fan of what he’s built with DIYRE from the very beginning. His designs consistently strike that rare balance between character, usability, thoughtful engineering, and amazing price. I’ve proudly supported DIYRE releases since day one, and this module is yet another example of why.
To kick off the new year, I picked up two Colour 500-Series Palette mkII units and loaded them up and I couldn’t be happier. The flexibility of the Colour ecosystem combined with the unmistakable cassette saturation vibe makes this one of the most inspiring additions to my setup in a long time.
If you’ve ever loved abusing cassette decks, four-tracks, or any lo-fi gear for the tone you can get when you push them past the proper operating specifications rather than nostalgia for old gear, this module delivers that spirit perfectly without the hassle.
Very tasteful and usable distortion. A very clever concept in design
Love it. Lo-fi vibes
I love this module for when I'm really trying to get creative with my distortion. I use it a lot on drums and in particular snares to get a really compressed snare sound.
When you need to dirty something up, this is the move. I bought this to add some real dirt and crunch to my colour palette chain. I’ve been slamming my bass guitar through it to get super crunchy warm tones. As a music producer primarily using the computer, i’m always looking for ways to dirty up sounds that suffer from being too digital clean/plastic-y. This thing is a nice cure all for that “i recorded this demo in my bedroom in the 1980s sound.” As always, super super fun to build, really easy and intuitive instructions. An absolute blast for a super audio nerd like me.
