Eventide has released of a modern version of Music Mouse, a pioneering algorithmic music creation application for personal computers from the 1980s.

Laurie Spiegel
Music Mouse was created in 1986 by electronic music composer Laurie Spiegel, and was originally available for early Mac, Amiga, and Atari personal computers. It transformed your computer into a real-time musical instrument, letting you generate chords, melodies, and arpeggios through mouse movements.

“Music Mouse orients you to think on a slightly larger scale of the phrase or the gesture,” Spiegel explained in a 2014 interview. “Of course, you can still wander around, making a mess for a really long time. We’ve all done that. But it’s an improvising instrument and it’s a brainstorming instrument.”

Here’s a 1987 demo by Spiegel:

Now, Music Mouse is back, with a fresh upgrade that builds on Spiegel’s seminal work and vision, thanks to the crew at Eventide.

Eventide is re-releasing Music Mouse, updated for modern systems, without changing what made it special. Music Mouse can run on Mac 10.14+ (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Windows 11. Music Mouse, then and now, uses mouse position to determine what sounds a device generates. It can be used on its own, directly from the computer, and can now play right in your preferred DAW.

Music Mouse 2.0

Here’s what’s new in version 2.0:

Perform live or record music into your DAW or music notation software;
Syncs to an external MIDI clock and can lock to a DAW, hardware, or notation program;
Expanded sound presets drawn from Laurie Spiegel’s original DX7 and TX7 patches are built in;
Clearer visual feedback around the Polyphonic Cursor;
Optional UI guides, hint bar, and scalable interface;
Left- or right-handed layout options.
Here’s a performance demo, via ALM TV:

Pricing and Availability:

Music Mouse 2.0 is available now for $29 USD.