OK, by popular demand, here are some .json files for the MC6 Pro and one for the ML10X. Well, OK, OK - ONE person requested it… But actually, I do still think that if ML10X owners understood what I am describing, that many of them would find this of interest. It does require a fair amount of work to set it up, although some of that is addressed by virtue of the .json files that can be downloaded from the link below. The ML10X set-up will of course have to be unique to your own particular board layout. If you find you want to pursue this, the addition of ONE FEATURE to the ML10X editor would save a significant amount of labor each time someone implements this: that is simply having the ability to select a range of ML10X presets and copy the range to a different location. For example, you could specify that presets 0 - 31 are copied into presets 32 - 63. I have sent an email to support requesting this, but I have not heard back yet. And now that I am on the subject, there is in fact a second editor feature that would also be extremely helpful: the ability to click on a connector in Advanced mode (say, right-click on it) and delete all the connections to that connector in a preset. In the editing process, you very often want to leave most of the connections unchanged, but re-locate a relatively small number of connectors. Being able to selectively delete connections to specific connectors would save a lot of time.
As noted in my more recent post, I now have organized two different sets of ML10X presets. The first one I created is in bank 1 of the ML10X and is organized according to the features listed in that post. As mentioned in the “SIDE NOTE” in that post, the presets in bank 1 all include ALL of the pedals. I realized that, when I want to exclude a chain of pedals in the configuration I want - especially when there are pedals arranged in parallel - there are unwanted side effects if you simply bypass the pedal(s): the dry signal passes through the bypassed pedal(s) and is added into the mix in an “uncontrolled” way. It is far preferable to configure the ML10X with unwanted loops omitted. Because you are able to design exactly what you want each preset to be, there is no danger of inadvertently introducing a feedback loop or any other unexpected problem - you are simply selecting another preset. So bank 2 contains an entirely different set of presets based on the following features:
Pedals all in parallel/some in series
Design layout as “Standard” / or “Alternate”
Include / Exclude Delays in layout
Include / Exclude Modulation in layout
Include / Exclude Reverbs in layout
Include / Exclude Octave pedal in layout
EQ / Amp-Sim at Start of chain / or at End
If you explore this, you will likely discover that your features are not all independent. Some combinations of features don’t necessarily fit together well. I found it useful to introduce Feature 2, where the “Standard” layout was as close as I could get to something that really “fit” with a given combination of features, and the “Alternate” provided an opportunity to work in alternatives that were interesting or otherwise desirable.
I will also briefly share my naming convention, which may be useful if it makes sense to you. I have more or less five loops in my ML10X set-up. The first letter in the list below is a one-letter abbreviation for that loop that I use in naming presets:
A: EQ and Amp-Sim (Walrus ACS1) - (stereo)
D: Delays (stereo)
M: Modulation (stereo)
R: Reverbs (stereo)
O: Octave pedal (mono)
(The remaining mono loop is used as an input for the right channel of my vocal pedal’s stereo output, and a mono output to send the effected guitar signal to an external Trio+ Looper pedal.)
Then I use the following conventions:
Letters typed in sequence indicate loops in series
The character “/” indicates two loops fed in parallel from the previous source
The characters “//” indicate a parallel arrangement where one side may consist of two or more loops in series
The characters “<” and “>” show where an output is distributed to (or collected from) loops that are configured in parallel
The character “=” is sometimes used to show two pedals in series
The character “+” shows a second group (very often including the Octave pedal) which also branches from the “raw input” (which is in fact the output from the compressor and volume pedal)
Thus, a preset name “A<DM//R+AO” indicates:
The Delay and Modulation loops are connected in series
The Reverb loop is connected in parallel with the Delay-Modulation series
Both of the above are fed independently (from separate branches) from the EQ-AmpSim loop
The EQ-AmpSim loop is also the source of input for the Octave pedal
(and yes, if you’re thinking, wait, couldn’t that also be written “A<DM//R//O>”? Yes, it could, but somehow the “+” - which is used mostly with the octave pedal - makes more intuitive sense to me.)
I bring all that up because I found it challenging to come up with meaningful names in 12 characters or less, and with the strategy above of using “Alternate” to really mean “something else that I thought would be useful but doesn’t necessarily fit logically into the set of features that I had to cram it into…”, it can help to have the name displayed on the ML10X actually be able to convey something of the nature of the preset.
Last details: I have included in the name of each MC6 bank back-up .json file the actual bank number in which the bank is loaded in my MC6 Pro, because there are instances of presets that use the “Engage Preset” message, and thus make a “hard-coded” reference to another bank in which that preset is located. I am unaware of any way to “re-map” bank references, so I think in order to utilize these bank back-ups “as-is,” they will need to be loaded into the same bank numbers. If you know a way around that, great! (And please teach me how!)
So, not to belabor the obvious, but if you want to load these files and test them, I would do a complete back-up of your MC6 Pro, then load these banks into their corresponding original bank numbers. You will likely want to add a preset somewhere in your hierarchy to jump to the ML10X BANK 1 bank (bank 23, page 1). The second set of presets is treated as another “feature,” that is labeled as “ALL PEDALS” (shown with all the features defining bank 1) or “SELECTED PEDALS” (with all the features defining bank 2).
One more note: you could also conceivably define a feature that has three possible states, making use of the SHIFT state in the MC6 Pro (for example, placing a given loop at the start of the chain, at the end, or in the middle). The only downside is that it tends to make less efficient use of the presets available in the ML10X. One three-state feature consumes the space of two two-state features. Similarly, two three-state features consume the space of four two-state features. But if you happen to want three three-state features, that only takes the space of five two-state features, so you could fit three three-state and two two-state features in one ML10X bank.
And a friendly reminder: If you choose to implement this approach, in order to reduce the amount of editing work you have to do, it’s a good idea to designate your most complicated feature as Feature 1, because you only have to hand-edit that feature one time, when you copy preset 0 into preset 1 and edit preset 1 to exhibit the other form of Feature 1. For your last feature (assuming you define seven features, and once you start designing this, I bet you will!), you will need to hand-edit it 64 times (after you copy presets 0 - 63 into presets 64 - 127). So save the simplest feature changes for the end!
OK, if you made it this far, you must be serious! Here’s a link to the MC6 Pro banks and the ML10X configuration that I used:
Good luck! I am happy to try to answer questions if anything is unclear.
All the best,
Cliff