How-To Articles

Using the 4 Cable Method (4CM) with the ML10X

What is the 4CM method?

There are a lot of information on the internet about the 4CM method. Basically, the 4CM method lets you use pedals in front of your amplifier as well as in your amplifier’s FX loop. This allows you place effects before or after the amplifier’s preamp section.

You can find more information here.

How can I use the ML10X in the 4CM?

With the ML10X, you can choose which effects are put in front of the amplifier and which are put into the FX Loop. There are a fews to do this, but we’ll just talk about the most obvious here.

Here are the connections you need to connect your instrument and amplifier:

You can make full use of the Inputs and Outputs (assuming you’re running in mono) to connect your Amplifier (and FX Loop) and Instrument. That way, you will still have the 10 loops available to use.

With this setup, and with your other pedals connected to each loop, you can start programming the ML10X.

In the Simple Mode example below, we have the Timeline connected to the front of the amplifier, and the Bigsky connected in the FX Loop.

We can then have another preset where we have nothing in front of the amplifier and both the Bigsky and the Timeline in the amplifier

In Advanced Mode, this is how it will look like:

Using 2 ML10X together

Although it is not possible to re-order pedals within 2 different ML10Xs, there are some solutions you could use to achieve similar behaviour with some limits.

For example, if you have 2 ML10Xs (let’s call them X1 and X2), you can connect a Send loop in X1 to the Input in X2, and Return loop in X1 to the Output in X2.

Also, lets assume you have the following pedals connected:

ML10X	Loop	Device
X1	`A Tip` Send	X2 `Input Tip`
X1	`A Ring` Send	X2 `Input Ring`
X1	`A Tip` Return	X2 `Output Tip`
X1	`A Ring` Return	X2 `Output Ring`
X1	`B Tip` Send/Return	Polymoon
X1	`C Tip` Send/Return	Sunset
X1	`D Tip` Send/Return	Hedra
X2	`A Tip` Send/Return	Timeline
X2	`B Tip` Send/Return	Bigsky
X2	`C Tip` Send/Return	Mobius

If you want to achieve a signal chain like this:

Input → POLYMOON → SUNSET → BIGSKY → TIMELINE → HEDRA → Output

You can set up the routing in the ML10Xs like this:

Another example:

Input → BIGSKY → POLYMOON → TIMELINE → SUNSET → HEDRA → Output

As you can see, reordering signals between the 2 ML10X is limited by how many loops you have connected between each other. With the setup above, you won’t be able route another signal between X1 and X2.

For example, this routing is not possible:

Input → BIGSKY → POLYMOON → TIMELINE → SUNSET → MOBIUS → HEDRA → Output

Unless you have a setup like this:

Even with this setup, you will not be able to utilise Simple Mode if you want to achieve the connection above. You’ll need to use Advanced Mode for this.

As you can see, while rerouting between 2 ML10Xs is possible, this can get complicated very quickly and you’ll need to manage the presets in 2 different ML10Xs as well. But now you know!