serumv1-preset-generator

Serum 1 Preset Generator

Describe a sound in plain language — "aggressive cyberpunk bass that keeps the sub clean," or in Russian — to Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or another local AI chat app on your own computer. You get a real, ready-to-load Preset sitting in Xfer Serum 1's browser (User → AI).

It needs a local app, not claude.ai in a browser — it writes the Preset file straight into Serum's folder on your machine, which a web chat can't reach.

• Free, no sign-up. Nothing to subscribe to, no API key to go get. If you can chat with Claude, you can use this.
• Trustworthy. Every setting is checked against all 299 of Serum 1's real parameters before anything is written, so you don't get a broken preset.
• Never loses work. It never overwrites an existing preset — a name that's taken gets _2, _3, and so on. Asking for a change always writes a new file; the one you started with is untouched.
• Private. It never sends anything anywhere — it only reads and writes files on your own computer.

Results aren't guaranteed to be perfect — always load the preset in Serum and listen before you commit to it.

Install (Claude Desktop)

1. Download the latest .mcpb file.
2. Double-click it. Claude Desktop installs it and asks where your Serum presets live — leave that blank to use the standard location.
3. Restart Claude Desktop.

Try it

Ask Claude something like:

• "deep sub bass for a dark trap beat"
• "Make me a Serum preset: warm evolving pad, no reverb"
• "bright plucky arp for a melodic house drop"
• "warm pad, Don Toliver-ish", "glassy pluck, Four Tet style", "aggressive bass, Skrillex-ish" — style and artist references work too; Claude draws on its general sense of that sound (genre, mood, typical gear), not an exact reproduction of any one track
• "тёмный мягкий пэд" — works in any language your chat app understands
• "Make me a Serum preset: metallic FX riser", then "make the one you just made darker" — asking for a change always writes a new file; the original stays untouched

---

For developers

Other ways to install

Using Claude Code, or an MCP client other than Claude Desktop, pinned to a stable release, no clone needed:

claude mcp add serumv1-preset-generator -- \
  uvx --from git+https://github.com/biogin/serumv1-preset-generator@v1.0.0 serum-gen-mcp

Any MCP client that reads a JSON config (Claude Desktop's own claude_desktop_config.json, under Settings → Developer → Edit Config, works the same way):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "serumv1-preset-generator": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["--from", "git+https://github.com/biogin/serumv1-preset-generator@v1.0.0",
               "serum-gen-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or hand the whole thing to an assistant with file/terminal access on the target machine:

Please set up the serumv1-preset-generator MCP server on this computer.

1. Install `uv` (a Python package manager) if it isn't already installed --
   on Mac/Linux: `curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh`
   on Windows: `powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"`

2. Register it as an MCP server pointed at
   https://github.com/biogin/serumv1-preset-generator (no need to clone it
   yourself -- `uv` fetches and builds it). If I'm on Claude Code, run:
   `claude mcp add serumv1-preset-generator -- uvx --from git+https://github.com/biogin/serumv1-preset-generator@v1.0.0 serum-gen-mcp`
   If I'm on Claude Desktop, add this to claude_desktop_config.json
   (Settings -> Developer -> Edit Config):
   {"mcpServers": {"serumv1-preset-generator": {"command": "uvx", "args":
   ["--from", "git+https://github.com/biogin/serumv1-preset-generator@v1.0.0",
   "serum-gen-mcp"]}}}

3. Tell me exactly what you did, then tell me to fully quit and restart my
   chat app (not just close the window) for it to take effect.

For development, or to configure beyond the defaults (SERUM_GEN_SERUM_ROOT, a custom Init template, etc. — see Configuration below):

git clone https://github.com/biogin/serumv1-preset-generator
cd serumv1-preset-generator
uv sync
claude mcp add serumv1-preset-generator --scope user -- \
  /opt/homebrew/bin/uv --directory "$(pwd)" run serum-gen-mcp

Use an absolute path for uv (Claude Desktop doesn't start servers with your shell's PATH) — replace /opt/homebrew/bin/uv with the output of which uv.

Architecture

No model call and no API key live anywhere in this codebase (ADR 0004): the calling MCP client designs the sound; this project only validates it against the Parameter Reference and writes the .fxp bytes.

Tools

Tool	Description
write_patch(patch, constraints=[])	Write a new preset from settings you designed. Returns a Patch Summary (the exact values written) and the Preset's path.
edit_patch(preset, changes, constraints=[])	Apply a partial change to an existing preset as a new Revision (<name>_v2, …); the original is never touched. Returns the Patch Summary plus every resulting difference.
list_parameters()	The full Parameter Reference: every settable name, its range/options and Init value, plus valid modulation sources/destinations and factory wavetables.
describe_preset(preset)	A human-readable summary of an existing preset's current settings and modulation matrix.

You don't call these by hand — the chat app builds them from your request, guided by this server's own instructions and list_parameters().

Command line

uv run serum-gen inspect path/to/preset.fxp   # every parameter and Routing of a preset

That's the only CLI command: designing or revising a preset from a description needs a model, and there's no model in this codebase — so there's nothing for a bare terminal command to call.

Configuration

All settings are optional, set in the environment or .env:

Variable	Default
SERUM_GEN_OUTPUT_DIR	Serum's Presets/User/AI
SERUM_GEN_SERUM_ROOT	/Library/Audio/Presets/Xfer Records/Serum Presets
SERUM_GEN_TEMPLATE	the packaged Init preset

Developed and tested on macOS; Windows and Linux likely work too via SERUM_GEN_SERUM_ROOT but are untested — there's no macOS-specific code anywhere in this project.

Known limitations

• edit_patch has worked well on presets like "Biggest Hard 808" + "hit harder," but at least one case ("PR 808 Kick Circuit [SD]" + "hit harder") didn't clearly change the sound as asked, in testing before this project dropped its own model. Treat a Revision as a starting point to audition, not a guaranteed result.
• Result quality tracks whatever chat app and model you're using — this server has no sound-design opinion of its own.

Development

uv run pytest        # no API key or network needed anywhere in this suite
uv run mypy          # strict
uv run ruff check && uv run ruff format --check

Tests that read the factory library skip when Serum isn't installed.

Prior art

serum-mcp does the same thing for Serum 2, whose .SerumPreset format Xfer doesn't publish (its own docs note parameters are shipped with confidence levels, not certainty). This project targets Serum 1's .fxp format instead, verified byte-for-byte against the installed factory library — a different synth version, not a better approach to the same one.

Design notes

CONTEXT.md (glossary) and docs/adr/ (decisions).

License

MIT