“A veritable cornucopia of modulating textures”: Kernom Elipse pedal assessment

What’s it?

There are fairly a couple of multi-modulation pedals in the marketplace today, together with some massive hitters from Boss, Strymon, and Walrus Audio. So what makes the Kernom Elipse worthy of your consideration? Nicely, as we’ll discover out it’s a barely totally different beast to the aforementioned, doing one thing that the others can’t.

On the heart of the Elipse is a novel performance that mixes an analog audio path managed by digital circuitry, permitting you to morph between totally different modulation tones seamlessly. It opens up some fascinating tonal prospects, whereby you may combine totally different results collectively to create one thing fully distinctive and notably suited to the tune you’re participating it for.

That can assist you management the Elipse’s indirect tonal shifting properties you’ve obtained a number of six knobs. The left-hand aspect offers with the person parameters of every impact within the type of Form, Velocity, and Depth, controls generally discovered on all kinds of modulation pedals. The appropriate-hand aspect dictates what kind of sound and the way a lot of it you get, with the Temper knob providing you with your core sound, whereas Combine controls impact versus dry guitar. To date so easy. The Swirl knob does one thing completely totally different, however we’ll get to that afterward.

When it comes to connectivity, you’ve obtained a single 1/4-inch enter and output, so no possibility for stereo swirling. There’s an expression pedal connection that lets you management sure parameters and MIDI out and in comes through two MIDI TRS connectors, opening up the potential of 128 presets with Program Adjustments in addition to management of the pedal’s inside features through Management Change messages.

Specs

• Launch value: $369/£309/€369 – customized duties could apply exterior the EU
• Sort: Modulation
• Controls: Velocity, Form, Depth, Combine, Temper, Swirl
• Options: Modulation results morphing
• Connectivity: Enter, output, expression, MIDI in, MIDI out, energy
• Bypass: Buffered
• Energy: 9-volt, 150mA minimal, 200mA really useful
• Dimensions: 164mm x 52mm x 112mm
• Weight: 850g (1.8 lbs)
• Choices: N/A
• Contact: Kernom

Construct high quality

Construct high quality score: ★★★★★

Let’s get one factor out of the best way first. This factor is definitely constructed like a tank. This overused idiom is current on many a guitar gear assessment however I feel the Kernom Elipse actually may survive being run over by a tank with its 5mm thick aluminum casing. It’s by far essentially the most strong feeling pedal I’ve ever had my fingers on, and in case you had been so inclined to launch it throughout the room, there’s little doubt in my thoughts no matter it hit would take much more harm than the pedal itself.

The management knobs are actually stiff which can divide some, however I like that it permits for very incremental adjustments, which makes plenty of sense when utilizing the Temper knob. Every part feels solidly hooked up, and the pedal seems like one cohesive unit with every part being so stable. There are zero doubts for me that these items will nonetheless be round lengthy after the cockroaches inherit the Earth.

Usability

Usability score: ★★★★☆

I started my exams with no guide, switching between settings to see what types of sounds I may conjure. Every part may be very self-explanatory and labeled which makes the Elipse very straightforward to make use of. For those who’ve ever used a modulation impact pedal you’ll haven’t any issues dialing in usable sounds, however these further controls and the high-quality particulars of the Temper knob will take some additional digging.

I didn’t want to leap into the guide to work out how you can save a preset both, you simply maintain down the preset knob for a couple of seconds and the accompanying LED begins flashing to let you understand it’s finished. It means you may have one preset able to go and set the pedal to what you need, providing you with two presets to change between.

For those who want greater than that, you’ll want to start out diving into MIDI foot controllers to your guitar, which supplies you much more flexibility for curating presets. Keep in mind that the bottom quantity message in your MIDI controller, often 0 or 1, will relate to the inner preset. With 128 presets doable this manner, you gained’t be operating out of sounds any time quickly.

Sounds

Sounds score: ★★★★½

As soon as I’d had a multitude round with the Elipse at face worth, I made a decision to start out diving into the cheat sheet Kernom kindly offered me to dial in some basic results. I used to be at house so I performed by my HX Stomp, utilizing the Fender Twin and Princeton fashions for clear tones, and the Orange Rocker and 5150 fashions for achieve sounds.

From the Black Gap Solar rotary sound to a Hendrix-esque Univibe, the Elipse delivers iconic modulation tones in buckets. It may well do an incredible CE-1 impression (attempt not enjoying Message In A Bottle), in addition to an superior Part 45 imitation.

Beneath you’ll discover some examples of those basic results I put collectively whereas I used to be testing the pedal.

These bread-and-butter results are all prime quality and sound nice, however to be trustworthy I’m extra serious about these morphing results we talked about earlier. They’re accessed by putting the Temper knob within the in-between positions, providing you with qualities of every impact that ship some completely distinctive textures.

Beneath I’ve tuned my guitar to DADGAD and performed an open chord whereas slowly sweeping the ‘Temper’ knob so you may hear how the results bleed into each other. I’ve finished a clear demo and one with a better achieve sound and the combo knob set to full to unlock the full-range tremolo and the vibrato impact.

The Temper knob is specified by an order that can make sense to pedal nerds, with the Rotary impact positioned in between the Tremolo and Refrain impact because it shares components of each sounds. Transferring on to the Refrain, Vibrato, and Flanger, these are all technically the identical impact, so once more it’s logical to position them subsequent to one another. Lastly, the Vibe impact is positioned subsequent to the phaser as it’s a kind of phaser circuit.

It’s extremely good enjoyable balancing these totally different tonalities and I spent hour simply experimenting with the temper knob to see what I may create. Tremendous changes right here could make a giant distinction to what you get, and that’s earlier than you begin getting the opposite controls concerned. It’s a veritable cornucopia of modulating textures that had me wanting to purchase a MIDI controller so I may save a myriad of presets for my very own tones.

The depth knob determines how a lot modulation you get, whereas the Velocity knob will increase or decreases the tempo of the modulation. In the meantime including various quantities of the Form knob goes from a easy, fast dip within the waveform on the far left place, a pointy up-down form on the midpoint, and a easy, fast rise on the far proper place.

Lastly, the Swirl knob provides you the addition of a sluggish phaser alongside any of the opposite results from the far left to the mid place, earlier than introducing a drive circuit impressed by the Kernom Ridge from the mid-point to the far proper. I discovered the sluggish part exhausting to discern to be trustworthy, however completely liked the addition of some additional drive sounds to assist saturate the modulation even additional.

Verdict

For those who’re bored of the common multi-modulation pedal, the Kernom Ridge provides you with some distinctive flavors that might unlock plenty of creativity in your enjoying. It’s straightforward to make use of on the face of it, however affords loads of depth for many who like to govern their results and manipulate their tones.

It’s an extremely strong pedal, and I’d go so far as to say it’s set a brand new normal for me in terms of ruggedness, taking it from built-like a tank to able to being run over by one. I like the stiffness of all the knobs for making high-quality changes, however can respect there are those that may not benefit from the really feel. There’s no stereo both, which could disappoint synth customers or the uncommon guitarist operating a full stereo rig.

Guitar World verdict: For those who’re after a modulation pedal that may do issues in a different way however nonetheless cowl all of these basic sounds, I’d extremely suggest you go try the Kernom Elipse. It’s an extremely versatile pedal that may play plenty of roles, and its ruggedness will make it a gigging workhorse.

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Matt is a Junior Offers Author right here at Guitar World. He often exams and opinions music gear with a give attention to guitars, amps, pedals, modelers, and just about the rest guitar-related. Matt labored in music retail for five years at Dawsons Music and Northwest Guitars and has written for varied music websites together with MusicRadar, Guitar Participant, Guitar.com, Final Guitar, and Thomann’s t.weblog. A often gigging guitarist with over 20 years of expertise enjoying stay and writing and recording in bands, he is carried out every part from jazz to djent, gigging everywhere in the nation in additional dingy venues than you may shake a drop-tuned guitar at.

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