Kernom Elipse, Ridge & Moho

The Moho: a versatile fuzz pedal, capable of various vintage‑inspired tones.

Adding digital control to analogue guitar pedal circuits can be particularly tricky, but Kernom have come up with a fresh approach...

French manufacturer Kernom have created an intriguing range of effects pedals, which are based around a novel technology they have dubbed the Analog Morphing Core.

Most of us will now be familiar with digitally controlled analogue circuits. For example, many audio interface mic preamps now place their gain settings under digital control, allowing them to be precisely adjusted, recalled, and remotely configured. However, these designs are usually based around complex integrated circuits, whereas many guitar pedals are very basic circuits that use only a handful of components. In their original form, these circuits don’t lend themselves to conventional digital control, but modifying the circuit to make it possible risks changing the sound.

Kernom’s innovation is to apply digital control to the bias point of diodes and transistors, allowing their transfer curves to be modified and to recreate the way those components are used in different pedal circuits. The intention is that each Kernom device can cover a range of sonic territory that would normally require half a dozen traditional pedals. And on top of that, it’s possible to morph between different effects in real time, and to store and recall preset settings over MIDI.

Core Strength

The range currently comprises three pedals, all using the same stout metal case. The audio I/O is on jacks, as you’d expect, but the Elipse and Moho can accept line‑level signals as well as guitar inputs, whilst the Ridge can be switched from the default high‑impedance mode to a line‑level mode, accepting signal levels up to +24dBu for studio use. A further full‑size jack accommodates an expression pedal, while MIDI in and out are on 3.5mm sockets. The pedals require a centre‑negative 9V DC power supply that can deliver at least 150mA (Elipse) or 250mA (Ridge and Moho); no supply is included.

The Elipse, Ridge and Moho are, respectively, billed as modulation, overdrive and fuzz pedals. The foot‑operated Preset and On/Off switches are identical on all three, the latter toggling a relay‑switched true bypass. All three pedals feature a Mood dial, which sweeps between different circuit types with different properties. On the Elipse, for example, there are six positions labelled Harmonic Tremolo, Rotary, Chorus & Vibrato, Flanger, Phaser and Vibe, but since the Mood control is continuous, it can be parked either on one of these settings or between two adjacent ones. In this case, the other five controls are Speed, Shape, Depth, Mix and Swirl, of which all but the last are self‑explanatory.

It should be pointed out that all three pedals are in fact hybrid devices rather than ‘pure’ digitally controlled analogue. The exact division of labour between the analogue and digital processing stages varies, but Kernom say everything that affects the tone of the output happens in the analogue domain. So, again using the Elipse as an example, the modulated delay line is digital, but the...