New sampler Engram turns AI hallucinations into music
Startup Thoughtful Things has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Engram, a sampler and groovebox that uses a local AI model to mangle audio and generate strange new sounds. The device targets experimental sound design rather than ready-made hit songs.
Music technology startup Thoughtful Things has launched a Kickstarter campaign for its first hardware instrument, called Engram. The device is a sampler and groovebox that uses artificial intelligence to distort incoming audio and even generate entirely new, previously nonexistent sounds.
Unlike popular AI music platforms built around producing polished, radio-ready songs at the push of a button, Engram is designed for a different purpose. It aims to create experimental, uncanny, and unusual sounds by deliberately pushing AI audio models past their normal limits.
A local model, no internet required
Engram is not connected to the internet. Instead, it runs a small, custom-designed and custom-trained AI model entirely locally. Thoughtful Things states that its audio models were trained exclusively on open datasets licensed for commercial use, such as CC-BY licenses, and that the company has never trained, and will never train, its models on pirated or otherwise unlicensed data.
The company also plans to eventually open up Engram's firmware, allowing users to modify it or load their own custom-built AI models onto the device.
Inspired by circuit bending
In the campaign video, founder Evan King uses a voice command asking the device for a "piano" sound, and Engram responds with a glitchy result that only vaguely resembles a piano. King describes Engram as a kind of "field recorder for latent space," emphasizing that its purpose is to explore AI hallucinations and experimental sound design. The device also draws inspiration from circuit bending, letting users tweak — and even deliberately break — its small built-in AI models.
For the Kickstarter campaign, Engram is being offered in a limited run starting at $675, which is listed as a 30 percent discount. That suggests the eventual retail price will likely fall between $850 and $900.
