Music Mouse, the pioneering production software created in the 1980s by composer and technologist Laurie Spiegel, is set to return with a significant upgrade for the modern era.
The original version of Spiegel’s Music Mouse was considered a visionary development at the time that completely reimagined what electronic music production could be. At a time when personal computers were becoming more available, the algorithm-based "intelligent instrument" enabled creators to use their computer mouse to generate chords, melodies and arpeggios on their Atari, Amiga, or early Macs.
Describing the software upon its initial release in 1987, Spiegel described the program as an intuitive tool with "a variety of options built into it for harmony and melodic patterning, freeing its player to focus on the movement of melodic lines, the shape and density of their elaboration, their electronic 'orchestration', and on the overall form and expressive content of the music itself." You can watch a video of her demonstrating the program back then below.
The new version of Music Mouse has some notable additional features, including the ability to perform live and record music into your DAW or music notation software. It can also sync to an external MIDI clock and can lock to a DAW, hardware, or notation program. Expanded presets drawn from Laurie Spiegel’s original DX7 and TX7 patches have also been built in.
Additionally, users will see clearer visual feedback around the Polyphonic Cursor, optional UI guides, hint bar, and scalable interface, and left- or right-handed layout options.
In a statement, Tony Agnello, First Engineer at Eventide, shared: “When Laurie first described Music Mouse to me, I realised how it stood apart. The emerging tech of the mid ‘80s was focused on adding effects or creating new sounds. Laurie’s idea was neither; it was different. She imagined using the computer as an intelligent musical tool that could be ‘trained’ to accompany and enrich a musician’s performance. She was light years ahead of her time. A new generation of Music Mouse is long overdue and it’s my honour to have helped breathe new life into Laurie’s creation.”
Music Mouse will be available to run on Mac 10.14+ (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Windows 11. It can be used on its own, directly from the computer, and on preferred DAWs.
Music Mouse is available now from Eventide. For more information, click here.
Laurie Spiegel is an electronic music pioneer, whose 1980 album 'The Expanding Universe' remains an all-time classic of drone and experimental sound. Her version of Johannes Kepler's 'Harmony of the Worlds' was sent into space as the opening track of the Voyager Spacecraft's 'Sounds of Earth' record in 1977.