Engram sampler turns AI hallucinations into experimental music

Music startup Thoughtful Things has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Engram, its first instrument. The sampler and groovebox uses artificial intelligence to alter incoming audio and generate new sounds.

Engram is designed for experimental sound creation rather than producing a finished song at the push of a button. It is not connected to the internet and runs a small AI model locally. According to the Kickstarter listing, Thoughtful Things designed and custom-trained the model.

The company says it trained its audio models on open datasets containing only audio licensed for commercial use, such as CC-BY. It says it has not trained and will not train them on non-commercial, pirated, or stolen data. Thoughtful Things also plans to open Engram’s firmware so users can modify it or load their own models.

In the campaign video, founder Evan King prompts Engram with the word “piano.” It produces a glitchy sound that is vaguely piano-like. King describes the instrument as a “field recorder for latent space.” The project also draws inspiration from circuit bending, letting users tweak or disrupt its AI models.

The campaign offers a limited run of Engram units starting at $675. Thoughtful Things has not announced a retail price. The article estimates it could be between $850 and $900, based on the campaign’s description of the $675 pledge as a 30 percent discount.