Laurie Spiegel’s Music Mouse is available now from Eventide

1986, meet 2026. Music Mouse from Laurie Spiegel is available now as a new Eventide application — completely faithful to the original, ground-breaking compositional application, but fully modernized.

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.”

Peter Kirn - February 16, 2026

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.

Peter Kirn - January 25, 2026