Eventide has revived Music Mouse, a unique piece of music software from the 1980s. But what does it do?
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Eventide Music Mouse
Back in 1986, computer music-making software was in its infancy. One of the standouts of the era was Music Mouse from composer and technologist Laurie Spiegel. Available for the Atari, Amiga and Mac and described as an algorithmic musical composition tool, Music Mouse let you compose music by dragging your mouse across a grid of pre-defined notes, chords and arps. Now Eventide is bringing the landmark program back for modern computers as a standalone program.
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The original 1986 Music Mouse · Source: Eventide
“Music Mouse was fun and playful, making music in radically new ways,” says Eventide. “It also made history, marking the beginning of an era of digital music creation for all.”
It was unusual for the time because it was an actual instrument that you couldplay in real time, not just a sequencer or editor, as this 1987 article in Commodore Music explains. First, you set up the grid, assigning things like scales, what notes will be played, the number of voices (up to four, at least in the modern version), how these notes follow the mouse, and if those notes come from internal or external sounds. This all happens on the grid with four keyboard maps, with colored lines that show which notes are being played.
Here’s a video of it in action, as used by ALM/Busy Circuits to sequence two Akemie Castles via a Commodore Amiga 2000.
A Singular Musical Idea
Eventide is now re-releasing Music Mouse “with care,” according to the company. “Just a singular musical idea, returned to play.”
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Reflects Tony Agnello, First Engineer at Eventide: “When Laurie first described Music Mouse to me, I realized 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. A new generation of Music Mouse is long overdue and it’s my honor to have helped breathe new life into Laurie’s creation.”
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Original Music Mouse creator Laurie Spiegel · Source: Marilyn McLaren
Standalone App
The new version of Music Mouse updates the GUI for modern computers while retaining the grid layout of the original. It’s a standalone app but you can connect it to your DAW via MIDI. You can use it to perform live or record music, and it will sync to an external MIDI clock and can lock to a DAW, hardware, or notation program.
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Eventide Music Mouse · Source: Eventide
The new program also excitingly features expanded sound presets drawn from Laurie Spiegel’s original DX7 and TX7 patches, plus clearer visual feedback around the Polyphonic Cursor compared to the original. Eventide also promises new optional UI guides, a hint bar, a scalable interface, and left- or right-handed layout options.
Pricing and Availability
Honestly, when I first heard about the new Music Mouse just prior to NAMM, where Eventide teased the release, I was surprised that a company known for its hardware emulations should be updating an early computer program. But it sounds like this is a labor of love on the part of Eventide.
Music Mouse is available now for $29 for both Mac and Windows PCs.
More Information
Eventide Music Mouse homepage
More about Eventide
More about software
More about synthesizers
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Eventide Music Mouse teaser