Eventide revives Laurie Spiegel’s Music Mouse as a modern MIDI plug-in
The intelligent composition tool from 1986 now integrates with modern production setups, offering scale-constrained improvisation & flexible MIDI routing
In 1986, composer and programmer Laurie Spiegel released Music Mouse, an early intelligent composition tool for personal computers.
Designed for the Macintosh, Amiga, and Atari, it translated simple mouse movements into harmonically structured MIDI output. Instead of entering notes step by step, users navigated tonal space in real time, with the software constraining pitches to chosen scales and chords.
Now, Eventide has brought Music Mouse back as a modern plug-in.
The 2026 update preserves Spiegel’s original rule-based engine while adapting it for today’s DAWs. Producers can route its MIDI output into software instruments, map parameters to controllers, and integrate it into hybrid hardware setups.
The interface remains focused on live interaction, encouraging exploration of harmony without complex programming.
Users select scales, keys, and chordal frameworks, and the software constrains notes accordingly, making it possible to improvise within defined tonal systems. Horizontal and vertical mouse movements influence pitch relationships and voicing in real time.
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Spiegel’s background in both experimental composition and early computer music research shaped Music Mouse’s rule-based design. Her work explored how algorithms could extend, rather than replace, human musical intuition. That philosophy is still central to the software’s workflow.
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Eventide, active in recording technology for over 50 years and recognised with a Technical GRAMMY for its founders, will also be releasing a tribute to the creator, titled Loud as a Mouse: The Story of Music Mouse by Laurie Spiegel.
Music Mouse offers a different entry point into harmony and structure. It can generate evolving chordal patterns, melodic lines, and harmonic shifts quickly, making it useful for sketching ideas, live improvisation, or exploring unfamiliar tonal spaces.
Purchase now for US$29 here.
Amira Waworuntu is Mixmag Asia’s Managing Editor, follow her on Instagram.
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