Curious Electric Köln
This is the instrument, not a picture of it Tap a pad · or type Q A Z rows
a pad you press a level stop empty
The shapes mean the same thing on every screen. On a dark stage you read silhouettes faster than colour.

Curious Electric Sampler

Good luck finding
a working sampler
under a hundred.

Drop your own sounds into the instrument above and play them. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for, and nothing leaves your machine.

About [device price] for a device you buy anywhere, plus €19.90 for the instrument. Thirty-eight pads, no sample memory to run out of, and your own sounds on it in a couple of minutes.

Nothing to hand? Load one of twelve free packs and play it right there.

The short version

The questions
people actually ask.

Same answers for both devices and for the browser, unless it says otherwise.

Do I have to fumble with the SD card?
No card fumbling. Plug the cable into the computer you already have. The device turns up as a drive and you drag a folder onto it, like any other file.
Can I keep my samples in folders?
A kit is a folder. Lay it out in the editor, or build one by hand and rename a file to move it to another pad. Nothing is hidden in a database.
How long does a kit take to load?
It doesn't load. Samples stream from the card as they play, so switching on is switching on. There is no wait between you and the first hit.
How much sample memory do I get?
There isn't a memory limit to hit. Length is bounded by the card, not by RAM, so a long sample is the same to it as a short one. A 16 GB card holds hundreds of kits.
How many pads?
Thirty-eight, on every device and in the browser, in the same layout. What you learn on one is true on the others.
Do I have to install an editor?
It's a web page. It works in any browser, on any machine, with no account and no upload. Your audio is decoded on your own computer and stays there.
Can I use my own sounds?
That is the whole idea. Drop in what you have. There is no library to buy, nothing to subscribe to, and no pack we would rather sell you.
Does it run on battery?
Yes, on both devices. Pick it up and it comes with you, with the kit already on it.
What happens if you stop?
It keeps working. The firmware you bought is a file you downloaded and can keep. Nothing here checks in with a server, so nothing switches off when we do.
How do I know the software is any good?
You already do. The instrument at the top of this page is the real one, with your own samples in it, before you have paid for anything. That is a better promise than a refund policy and one we can actually keep.

The things it deliberately does not do are further down this page, and we would rather you read those too.

Three bodies

One instrument.
Pick the shape that suits you.

These are not tiers and neither one is the real one. They are the same instrument in different bodies, and which is better depends entirely on where you are standing.

In a browser

Free · no account

  • Pads 38, mouse or keys
  • Sound stereo
  • Your samples yes
  • Takes with you a laptop

M5Stack Cardputer ADV

€32 · device

  • Pads 38, real keys
  • Sound mono
  • Battery yes
  • Pocket yes

M5Stack Tab5

€80 · device

  • Pads 38, 5″ touch
  • Sound stereo
  • Battery yes
  • Pocket no

Small keys are quick and they are small. A big touch screen is easy to hit and will not go in a coat. Nobody can tell you which of those matters more on your stage.

What you are buying

Your licence isn't
tied to a box.

Buy a sampler and you have bought one sampler. Outgrow it, or drop it, and you buy another one.

Here you buy the instrument, and it runs on every device we support. Start on the small one, move to the big one later, keep both, replace a broken one with the same model for the price of the hardware. The licence follows you rather than the box.

Kits move with you too. A card written on one device plays on the other, unchanged.

What it costs

Pay once for
the instrument.

  • The instrument, in your browser Free
  • Firmware for a device €19.90
  • Kit editor Free

No subscription and no account. Updates are included for five years, including support for devices added during that time. After it, what you have keeps working for good, and a new window is a paid upgrade if you want one.

Buy · test mode

You have already heard it with your own samples before paying for anything. That is deliberate: it is a better promise than a refund policy, and one we can actually keep.

How it works

Buy the box
somewhere else.

Get a device

From [retailer], delivered in two or three days. We don't stock it, ship it, or mark it up. Add a microSD card if you haven't got one: 16 GB is plenty, and a smaller card starts faster.

Flash it here

Plug it in, click install. Chrome or Edge on a desktop. No toolchain, no command line, no account.

Build your kits

Drop your own audio into the editor and lay it out on pads. Plug the device in and it turns up as a drive, so you copy the folder across like any other file. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

The promise

Five years from release, under the Cyber Resilience Act. We keep the technical documentation for ten.

Five years of security fixes and firmware updates, published here as plain files you can download and keep. It is the same five years as the update window above, because two different numbers would only be a way of promising less than it sounds. If we stop, the instrument you have does not.

Before you buy

The parts we'd
rather you knew.