Inside the Dialr Interface

How hardware, UI, and AI come together

Dialr was built with a simple goal: to give producers and musicians intuitive, hands-on control of their plugins, without the chaos of manual mapping, endless clicking, or clunky overlays. To make that happen, we didn’t just design a hardware controller. We designed an experience, where what you touch and what you see are part of the same flow.

Here’s how the Dialr interface works, and why every detail is designed to keep you in the zone.

The Hardware Layout: Built for Tactile Clarity

Dialr features 12 analog rotary knobs, arranged in two horizontal rows. Not all knobs are created equal. We use three distinct knob sizes across the panel.

This physical variation lets your fingers identify key controls by feel alone, so you don’t need to look down to adjust something mid-take. Over time, this builds true muscle memory, where function and motion are deeply connected.

At each side, you’ll find the left and right Select knobs. These let you:

• Turn to scroll between pages, plugins, or tracks

• Click to switch focus (e.g., from plugin to track)

• Hold to fine-adjust a selected parameter

It’s an intuitive, minimal control scheme, optimized for two-handed workflows.

The UI: A Focused Interface

Dialr’s 7-inch touchscreen is fast, crisp, and stripped of unnecessary layers. The goal? Immediate access to what matters, your parameters.

Key elements:

• Knob parameters: 1-12 mapped parameters, each linked to the nearest knob, clearly labeled with names and values updated in real-time.
• Soft buttons: 0-12 buttons next to the parameter names mapped with A/B or On/Off functions relevant to the knob parameter. 
• Left info box: Active plugin and selected track controlled by the left Select knob.
• Right info box: Selected profile page and soon also presets, controlled by the right Select knob.

It’s a focused interface with no menu diving, no hidden pages. Just instant access to the plugin parameters, right in front of you.

AI-Mapped Control: Smart Layouts That Just Work

At the heart of Dialr is the Producely AI Cloud, a system that scans, analyzes, and organizes plugin parameters into layouts that make sense.

Here’s how it works:

When a plugin is scanned, the AI identifies the most relevant parameters. These are arranged according to same signal flow principle: left to right

For example: Input → Modulation → HP Filter → Output

The AI is designed to generate consistent layouts across plugin types, placing similar parameters in the same positions whenever possible.

For example, with effect plugins, Input and Output typically appear in the lower left and lower right, while Mode and Mix are placed in the upper left and upper right.

To achieve this, the AI has learned to understand and categorize a wide variety of parameter names, recognizing that Mix, Blend and Dry/Wet, for example, serve the same function and should be treated the same.

This mapping gets smarter over time. As more users scan new plugins, the AI continues to learn and improve. If someone in the network scans a brand-new plugin or an updated version with new parameters, the system updates automatically, so everyone benefits.

Make It Yours: Custom Profiles

Want your own plugin profile layout? No problem. Open the editor in N.O.D.E, and you can:

• Remap any parameter to any knob

• Create and save your own custom profiles on your computer

• Soon store them securely in the cloud, visible only to you

You get the best of both worlds: intelligent mappings powered by AI, and full manual control whenever you want it. Your custom profiles are saved locally and in the cloud, so they’re always available, even when you're offline. And once you've created your own profile for a plugin, Dialr will automatically treat it as the new default on your unit, unless you choose otherwise in N.O.D.E.

A UI That Feels Physical

Dialr isn’t just mapped - it’s always mapped, with an interface that mirrors the feel of great studio gear, but powered by cloud intelligence and deep software integration.

What makes Dialr truly unique is the tight symbiosis between hardware and UI. The UX on screen mirrors the physical layout of the knobs, parameter by parameter, page by page, so what you see is always what you touch. That consistency creates trust, speed, and muscle memory.

The ultimate goal is to create a control surface that feels less like a tech product, and more like a natural extension of your workflow and your creative process.