Engram is a sampler that turns broken AI hallucinations into music
Thoughtful Things has launched a Kickstarter for Engram, a hardware sampler that uses local AI to manipulate audio and generate experimental sounds. The device is designed for sound designers and musicians rather than mainstream pop production.
Why it matters
This represents a growing trend of integrating generative AI into physical hardware for creative expression while emphasizing ethical data sourcing.
Music startup Thoughtful Things has just launched the Kickstarter campaign for its first instrument, Engram. It’s a sampler and groovebox that uses AI to mangle incoming audio and even hallucinate completely new sounds. This isn’t Suno in a box, though. This isn’t a “push-button, get-song” device, aimed at creating something that sounds ready for top-40 radio. It’s about creating experimental, uncanny sounds and pushing AI audio models beyond their limits.
Engram isn’t connected to the internet. Instead, it runs a “tiny AI” locally. According to the Kickstarter listing, the model is designed in-house and custom-trained. The company says:
> “We’ve trained our audio models on open datasets that only contain audio licensed for commercial use (CC-BY or similar). We have not trained and will never train our models on non-commercial, pirated, or otherwise stolen data.”
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