Here’s Laurie Spiegel introducing Music Mouse in the 1980s

Eventide has posted a fantastic archival video in advance of their remake of Music Mouse. In this 1987 episode of Midnight Muse, composer and programmer Laurie Spiegel explains the software and takes call-in questions. “Even if we’re very good at the keyboard, sometimes we want our habits broken up,” she says, and “[this] allows you to push melodic lines around in space.”

ANIMEVOX by castpixel is a free retro anime-style sound fx generator

Sparkle! Slash! PowerUP! This deceptively simple, stupidly fun free browser tool/download generates sound effects in the style of 80s and 90s Japanese animation, all thanks to a clever signal chain. And you can export WAV files, so you could use it to build instruments/drum racks, too.

Peter Kirn - January 18, 2026

Forget channel closures: watch every decade of MTV music videos online

No, MTV is not shutting down, though Paramount Skydance did shutter some all-music video channels in various markets. But never mind: the internet can best even vintage MTV. Tune into MTV REWIND and hit shuffle by decade.

Peter Kirn - January 8, 2026