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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.”

SonicSketch DAW interface with audio controls, post-processing for image, and audio effects. In the center, the Indaw Anticline visualized seismic data, with a waveform puck in red moving across a teal path through the black and white image.

Live out your Xenakis fantasies, free in your browser, with SonicSketch

JeongHo Park, a self-described “algorithmic composer” and artist, is building a delightful instrument that turns images into scores with full drawing capability for making paths. Inspired by the likes of Xenakis’ UPIC, the tool gives you instantly mind-bending results, living in that netherworld between synthesizer and score.

Peter Kirn - February 9, 2026

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Laurie Spiegel’s Music Mouse, the Mac’s first instrument, in Eventide reboot

It’s 1986. Laurie Spiegel creates something unlike any software available at the time — an “intelligent,” algorithmic composer you can play as an instrument, for Mac, Amiga, and Atari ST. You’re at NAMM, and it’s 2026. Surprising everyone, Eventide announces they’re working with Spiegel to bring the original software to modern computers, preserving a breakthrough moment in digital music making. The mouse is back.