Thoughtful Things Engram: A Weird AI Groovebox Sampler From the Backrooms
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AI hardware arrives in the form of Thoughtful Things Engram, a sampler groovebox with neural audio processing and generative sound models inside. Curious about generating “uncanny” AI sounds, as the developer calls them?
Thoughtful Things Engram: Uncanny Groovebox
Thoughtful Things Engram
AI is a real hot-button topic. Some people are super excited about it, others get angry when just the letters are mentioned. I’m somewhere in between, to be honest. I’m wary about the environmental and societal implications, but also curious about how it can be used as a music-making (not artist-replacing) tool. Roland Future Design Lab and Neutone’s Project LYDIA was the first AI-powered music device that I experienced, and I really enjoyed playing with it. Engram from Thoughtful Things is giving me similar vibes.
Take a Hike Into the Uncanny Valley
Engram is a sampler groovebox currently in the prototype stage and under campaign on Kickstarter. It looks like your basic groovebox or drum machine, with eight knobs for things like tempo, gain and pan, plus 16 buttons for programming beats. There are also eight buttons for transport, mode and shift duties and a small LCD screen. So far, so typical.
What makes Engram unique, though, is how it processes and generates audio. Thoughtful Things developer Evan King describes it as “audio model bending.” It’s like circuit bending, but with a neural model. AI, in other words. “Take control of Engram’s unique model bending parameters to push tiny audio models beyond their limits and discover expressive, uncanny new sounds to sample,” he says on his website. “Then slice, flip, and manipulate your samples to fit your creative process. Think old-school musique concrète techniques with a dose of modern technology.”
There is no internet connection required, and no app or subscription. The model is baked inside and works on its own. You can use it to process audio that you’ve sampled via the audio in port, or resample the new sounds that you generate with the neural model. Evan is also promising pluggable audio models in the future, ones that either you train yourself or that other users have created. “Just like old-school ROMplers,” he says.
About Engram’s AI
People are understandably nervous about AI. Evan claims that his models have not been trained on non-commercial, pirated, or otherwise stolen data, and only audio licensed for commercial use. He stresses these are small datasets and no copyright infringement took place.
Connectivity
Bring a piece of hardware, Engram offers the kinds of connectivity you might expect in a groovebox or drum machine. It has MIDI in and out, CV sync/gate in and out, stereo line-level input for sampling, a headphone output and an on-board microphone for sampling and voice control. Yes, rather than enter text prompts, it seems like you can control the model with your voice. There doesn’t appear to be a dedicated audio out, though.
Price and Availability
Engram is now on Kickstarter. There are currently 26 days to go and it’s already very close to reaching its goal. Early bird pricing is already sold out, but there are plenty of regularly priced units at $770 available. Thoughtful Things is hoping to ship in May 2027.
More Information
- Thoughtful Things Engram Kickstarter page
- Thoughtful Things Engram product page
- More about synthesizers
- Buy synthesizers at Thomann*
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