---
type: page
slug: dial-in
title: "Dial In for BOSS GT: program a BOSS GT-1 with AI, by conversation"
order: 20
nav: false
updated: "2026-10-07"
lang: en
summary: >
  Dial In is a free, open source (MIT) Claude Desktop extension by Allan
  Kirsten. A guitarist describes a tone in plain language (a song, an artist,
  an amp or a feeling) and Claude programs amp, drive and effects on a BOSS
  GT-1 over USB, then keeps adjusting by conversation. macOS only for now.
---

# Dial In for BOSS GT

Dial In lets a guitarist shape tones on a BOSS GT-1 multi-effects pedal by talking to Claude. You ask for "the Iron Man tone" or "an AC-30 style crunch", play, and say what's off ("dirtier", "less treble", "lose the delay"). Claude writes every change straight to the pedal over USB and keeps adjusting until it sounds right.

Human page: https://allankirsten.com/en/lab/dial-in (Portuguese: https://allankirsten.com/lab/dial-in)

## What problem it solves

The BOSS GT-1 (sold 2016 to 2025) has dozens of amp models and effects behind a small screen and aging editor software (BOSS Tone Studio). Many owners never leave the factory presets. Most AI tone apps return a list of settings for the player to dial in by hand. Dial In writes the settings to the hardware and iterates with the player, so the conversation replaces the menus.

## How it works

- Dial In is a local MCP server packaged as a Claude Desktop extension (`.mcpb`, one double-click to install).
- It talks to the GT-1 with Roland SysEx over USB MIDI: it reads the loaded patch, changes any parameter live, renames patches, switches between the 99 user slots and saves to a slot.
- It can listen to the GT-1's USB audio to measure loudness, brightness, band balance and noise between phrases, level a patch's volume while you play and tune the noise suppressor.
- The GT-1 parameter map belongs to Roland and is never shipped: Dial In reads it from BOSS Tone Studio installed on the same Mac.

## Safety by design

- Level parameters rise at most 15 per step, to protect ears and neighbors.
- Switching patches never discards unsaved work without asking.
- Saving to a slot shows what is there, waits for a yes, backs up the old patch and verifies the write byte by byte.
- Every change in a conversation can be undone.

## Requirements

- macOS (tested on Apple Silicon)
- BOSS GT-1 over USB, with the GT-1 driver installed
- BOSS Tone Studio for GT-1 installed but closed while playing
- Claude Desktop

Windows, other BOSS GT models and a ChatGPT version are not available yet; the page has a waitlist that decides priorities.

## Privacy

Everything runs on the user's Mac. When Claude listens, a few seconds of audio become numbers (loudness, brightness, noise) and the recording is discarded. The only network request is a once-per-session check of a public, Ed25519-signed file that says whether a newer version exists; it sends no identifiers and can be turned off. No telemetry, no analytics, no accounts.

## Common questions

- **Does it overwrite my patches?** Not without asking, and it backs up first.
- **Is it paid?** No. Free and open source, MIT license.
- **Does it work on Windows?** Not yet.
- **Other pedals?** Only the GT-1 today.
- **Why is BOSS Tone Studio needed?** Dial In reads the parameter map from it; keep it closed while playing because it reloads the patch and competes for the connection.
- **How do updates work?** Claude mentions a new version once per session with the link; opening the new file replaces the old one and keeps backups.

## Who made it

Allan Kirsten, designer and product leader (23 years in design, 10 in product for startups), guitarist in his spare time. Dial In is part of his Lab, where he publishes experiments from problem to product.

- Site: https://allankirsten.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allankirsten

BOSS and GT-1 are trademarks of Roland Corporation. Dial In is an independent project, not affiliated with Roland.