Google Doodle Celebrates Robert Moog’s 78th Birthday with Playable Synthesiser

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Google Doodles are one of our favourite things about logging in to our PCs each day, and sometimes we’re sure you’ll agree they can be pretty special.

Our top Google Doodles in recent times have been interactive, such as the Les Paul playable guitar and the moving 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea doodle. Today’s might just top them all, honouring Robert Moog’s 78th birthday.

Robert Moog invented the Moog electronic synthesizer way back in the 1960’s, and today you can play an interactive version right on the Google homepage. We’d highly recommend it – it’s not only very entertaining but it’s also free, whereas the cheapest Moog synthesiser costs around £4000.

Google’s interactive synthesiser isn’t basic by any stretch of the imagination, and has plenty of knobs and dials to tweak in order to alter the quirky sound when you press a key. You’ve got three dials on three different oscillators, cutoff, decay and sustain, and cutoff, glide and contour options as filters and a modulation wheel.

The interactive synth marks a first for Google Doodles as it’s the first to use native sound generation with the Chrome browser, using a new tool called Web Audio API. Google has also used JavaScript, CSS3, Closure libraries as well as plenty of integration with Google+.

The coolest feature of today’s Google Doodle is the ability to record what you play and share it via the Google+ social network. You can record up to four tracks using the recorder to the right of the synth and either share via a short link or with Google+ at the click of a button.

Head on over to google.com now and give it a bash. If you feel you’ve created a masterpiece then share it with us!

Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
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