Prior to the release of Music Mouse, digital music software centred around editing recorded tracks – but in 1986, composer Laurie Spiegel launched the software which turned your computer into a standalone instrument.
To celebrate the software’s 40th anniversary, Eventide has modernised and re-imagined Spiegel’s iconic software. And it’s been produced in collaboration with Spiegel herself.
Originally released on the Mac, Spiegel’s software transformed the common mouse into an “intelligent musical instrument”. By moving your mouse up, down, left or right, across an X and Y axis, you can shape melodies, find new harmonies and explore a bank of diverse sounds and controls via your keyboard.
Four lines on the grid represent four unique voices, which can play simultaneously. Each shift of your mouse can alter where each voice falls on the grid, and as the lines move, they will tweak which notes are played.
Alongside its original sounds, the software comes equipped with a slew of classy retro synth presets, taken from Spiegel’s original DX7 and TX7 patches for Music Mouse. However, Eventide’s refreshed release allows you to control modern hardware and plugins with the software, too.
There are also 10 pattern sequences to utilise, as well as 4 rhythmic treatments (Chord, Arpeggio, Line, Improv) and 6 harmonic modes (Chromatic, Octatonic, Middle Eastern, Diatonic, Pentatonic, Quartal). Users can also control velocity, filter, tremolo and pitch modulation levels.
At its core, Music Mouse focuses on the joy of experimenting with new sounds. For that reason, Eventide hasn’t bloated its reimagined anniversary release; while the UI has had a bit of a tidy up, and you can now sync up your MIDI, it’s still an intuitive software anyone can pick up.
Music Mouse is available now for $29. For more information, head to Eventide.
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