From The Verge · Terrence O'Brien · · 1m 40s
Engram turns AI glitches into experimental music
Thoughtful Things launches a sampler that runs tiny AI models locally to create uncanny, broken sounds rather than polished songs.
In brief
Thoughtful Things launches a sampler that runs tiny AI models locally to create uncanny, broken sounds rather than polished songs. Music startup Thoughtful Things launched Engram, a sampler that uses locally-run AI to create experimental sounds by pushing audio models beyond their limits. Originally reported by The…
Thoughtful Things launches Engram
Music startup Thoughtful Things has launched a Kickstarter campaign for Engram, its first instrument. It's a sampler and groovebox that uses AI to mangle audio and create new sounds.
Not a push-button song maker
Engram isn't designed to create polished, radio-ready music like Suno. Instead it focuses on experimental, uncanny sounds and pushes AI audio models beyond their normal limits.
Runs AI locally, offline
Engram runs a tiny AI model locally without internet connection. Thoughtful Things trained the custom model on open datasets licensed for commercial use only, not pirated or stolen data.
“We have not trained and will never train our models on non-commercial, pirated, or otherwise stolen data.”
Field recorder for latent space
Founder Evan King describes Engram as a field recorder for latent space, exploring AI hallucinations and experimental sound design. It draws inspiration from circuit bending, letting users tweak and break its tiny AI models.
“field recorder for latent space”
Open firmware for custom models
Thoughtful Things plans to open Engram's firmware so others can tweak it or load their own custom models. In the campaign video, King asks for piano and Engram produces something glitchy and vaguely piano-like.
Kickstarter pricing and retail
Thoughtful Things is launching a limited run of Engrams for Kickstarter starting at six hundred seventy five dollars. The company hasn't announced retail price but it's likely between eight hundred fifty and nine hundred dollars.
The takeaway
Music startup Thoughtful Things launched Engram, a sampler that uses locally-run AI to create experimental sounds by pushing audio models beyond their limits.
