by Mat Dirjish
In the mid-1980s, composer and software designer Laurie Spiegel created Music Mouse, a program that turned a computer mouse into a musical instrument. With a turn of the wrist, a wave of the hand, anyone could generate chords, melodies, and arpeggios on their Atari, Amiga, or early Mac computers. Today, the Mouse is back, sporting an upgrade that builds on Spiegel’s work and vision via Eventide, a developer of sophisticated audio processors.
Eventide’s version of Music Mouse works on current Mac and Windows computers. It can run on Mac 10.14+ (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Windows 11. The software uses mouse positions to determine what sounds a device generates. It can work on its own, directly from the computer, and can now play right in users’ preferred DAWs.
Features of Eventide’s version include:
- The ability to perform live or record music into a DAW or music notation software.
- Syncs to an external MIDI clock and can lock to a DAW, hardware, or notation program.
- Integral sound presets drawn from Laurie Spiegel’s original DX7 and TX7 patches’
- Clearer visual feedback around the Polyphonic Cursor.
- Optional user-interface guides, hint bar, and scalable interface.
- Left- or right-handed layout options.
Tony Agnello, First Engineer at Eventide, recounts, “When Laurie described Music Mouse to me, I realized how it stood apart. The emerging tech of the mid ‘80s focuses on adding effects or creating new sounds. Laurie’s idea was neither; it was different. She sees the computer as an intelligent, trainable musical tool 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 honor to have helped breathe new life into Laurie’s creation.”
Price for the Music Mouse is $29.00. For more details, peruse the Music Mouse overview.
Mat Dirjish Online 