Innovative Sampler Engram Transforms AI Hallucinations into Music
Thoughtful Things, a burgeoning music startup, has introduced its first innovative instrument, Engram, through a Kickstarter campaign. Designed as both a sampler and a groovebox, Engram creatively manipulates incoming audio and generates entirely new sounds through AI, stepping beyond the conventional AI music generation formats. This instrument aims to produce experimental and uncanny audio experiences rather than chart-ready songs.
Operated entirely offline, Engram relies on a proprietary “tiny AI” model, designed and trained in-house by Thoughtful Things. The company has assured potential users that their audio models have only been trained on open datasets that permit commercial use, asserting a strong stance against using non-commercial or pirated data for training.
A notable feature of Engram is its open firmware policy, which permits users to modify the device’s software or even employ their custom-trained models. Demonstrating its capabilities, founder Evan King showcased Engram’s ability to transform vocal requests into glitchy, piano-esque sounds, encouraging users to perceive the device as a “field recorder for latent space.” Inspired by circuit-bending techniques, Engram takes users into the realm of AI-induced sound experimentation by allowing them to adjust its AI models creatively.
The Kickstarter campaign for a limited run of Early Bird Engram units is priced at $675. Although the final retail value has not been disclosed, it is anticipated to range between $850 and $900, with the current offering reflecting a significant 30 percent discount.
Reporting based on coverage first published by theverge.com.