The Colour Duo is the ultimate tool for adding analog color to your tracks. Each of the Duo's two channels is a full channel strip, with mic preamps, line inputs, and three Colour slots each.

You can purchase the Colour Duo kit on its own or with one of our Colour Bundles. The bundles contain stereo pairs of each Colour, so six Colours each. To learn more about each bundle, check out our Colour Format Page.

The ultimate Colour Palette

With the Duo we set out to make the Colour Palette of our dreams. Each channel features three Colour slots, with their own independent controls and bypass switches. 

New to the Colour section is the much-requested wet/dry mix control. The MIX knob allows for versatile parallel signal processing without making extra tracks in your project file. Push your Colour modules as hard as you’d like, and blend in the dry signal till you get exactly the sound you’re searching for.

The Colour Duo is the first Colour Palette that lets you swap Colours on the fly without any tools. Simply loosen the thumb screws on the front panel and the entire panel slides out, giving you immediate access to the Colours at any time.

World-class preamps

The Colour Duo features the same pristine mic preamps that made the CP5 our best-selling kit. With exceptionally low noise and 66dB of gain, this isn’t your interface’s built in preamp. Once you hear them at work, you won’t hesitate to record your most important sources with them.

The Colour Duo’s line input is an independent stage that bypasses the preamp completely. And since the line and mic inputs come in on separate jacks, you can keep both connected and just switch between them with the LINE/MIC button on the front panel. 

Versatile connectivity

We gave you all the connectivity we could think of. Why? Because we like you and we hate adapters as much as you do. We even equipped a power THRU jack so you can power multiple Colour Duo units from one supply. Read more about the THRU jack in the "Power Supply Options" section below.

Using the Duo

Two Channel Mic Preamp

Track your two most important sources or a stereo pair with the Duo's two world-class preamps. You can track clean to process later, or engage Colours for processing on the way in.

Dual Channel Strip

Use the two channels as line inserts to bring real hardware color to your tracks. Warm up a vocal with saturation or push a room mic to the extreme with a compressor.

Stereo Bus Processor

Add punch to a stereo drum bus or glue your entire mix together with tape and transformer saturation.

Power Supply Options

All of our rack-mount kits use the same External PSU and feature a THRU jack for daisy-chaining power from one unit to another. This way you can power up to four rack-mount units with only one External PSU.

The External PSU is a universal power supply that connects to the Colour Duo via a 5-pin XLR cable. Choose this option if this is your first rack-mount kit from DIYRE.

The THRU Cable can be used to daisy-chain power from one unit to another. The THRU Cable comes as a kit that you must solder together yourself. Choose this option only if you already have an External PSU from DIYRE.

Full feature list

• 21-detent stepped pots for easy recall and stereo operation
• Easy Colour swapping
• Front panel drawer slides out
• Thumb screws require no tools to operate
• Active switch mutes the signal to protect ears and speakers while swapping Colours
• Power supply
  
• Comes with an external, high-current (1.5A) power supply
• Accepts 110-220v wall power
• Regulated +/-16vDC and +48vDC outputs
• Connects to case via 5-pin XLR jack
• Mic Input
• 66dB of gain
• +48V phantom power
• 80Hz high-pass filter
• Polarity
• -20dB pad
• Colour section
• 3 Colour slots per channel
• Individual bypass and Colour controls for each stage
• Makeup gain/trim knob
• Wet/Dry mix knob
• Connectivity
• 2 XLR mic inputs
• 2 Combo XLR/TRS line inputs
• 2 XLR line outputs
• 2 TRS line outputs
• 1U height 19” rack mount case
• Anodized aluminum front panel
• Powder-coated steel chassis
• Case is 8.4" deep
• DIY kit
• Comes with every part need to complete kit
• Features our famous step-by-step photo instructions, interactive build map, and component sorting sheet

What the Pros are Saying

"So, do I like it? Hell yes, I like it! As I mentioned, I’m a long-time fan of DIYRE’s work and use their CP5 and EQP5 (preamps and EQs, respectively) all the time. I love the Colour Duo preamps for the same things I love the CP5 for: overheads that have all the depth and pinpoint definition of a beautiful drum kit, acoustic guitars that sound like they are right in front of the listener, and strings that need to shimmer through a mix. Combine these gorgeous sounding preamps with the options available in the Colour modules, and you can create almost any flavor of preamps you want. Not to mention, you’ll have a new processor for mix bus or track insert duties allowing you to add transformers, compressors, or EQ curves – the Colour world is deep and constantly evolving!"

-Don Gunn
TapeOp Magazine #144

Video review by Alec Brits, Music In The Cabin

Technical

Block Diagram

Audio enters the Duo through either the MIC IN or LINE IN. The MIC IN can amplify the mic signal up to 60dB, while the LINE IN has a fixed attenuation of -6dB. The MIC/LINE switch selects which input is sent to the rest of the unit.

Signal is then sent to the Colours in series. Each Colour contains a bypass switch, and a dual-gang potentiometer which controls gain before the Colour and attenuation after. The Colours feed a gain/trim stage to make up for the gain or loss from the Colours. This signal then feeds the wet/dry mix stage, where it is summed with the dry signal from before the Colour section. The COLOUR switch selects between the output from the mix stage or the output from the MIC/LINE switch. This feeds the balanced output which provides +6dB gain.

Specifications

Line Input

Mic Preamp

Line Output

General

Resources

• Colour Duo Assembly Guide
• Colour Duo Build Map
• Colour Duo Operation Manual (PDF)
• Colour Duo IO Board Schematic (PDF)
• Colour Duo Drawer Schematic (PDF)
• Colour Duo Recall Sheet (Vertical)
• Colour Duo Recall Sheet (Horizontal)