Tag: bob moog

Google Moog Doodle Songs Showing Up on YouTube

As you might expect, ever since the Bob Moog Google Doodle showed up–it’s still up on Google, ala, the Les Paul Doodle–folks have been uploading songs covered by the playable synthesizer. The results are about what you’d expect: digital songs that almost sound like the original song that’s being covered.

In fact, many of them sound like the kind of music you might hear on an 8 or 16-bit video game console. With that in mind, here’s a sample of the songs being uploaded, including a Daft Punk/”Aerodynamic” cover that’s the current winner in regards to YouTube views, netting almost half a million.

That particular cover gets us started:

Next up is a cover of the song Frazy:

The original version, which was made for Commodore 64 founder, Jack Tramiel:

The intro to Van Halen’s “Jump.” At least the melody is right:

The theme song from Tetris:

We’ll end this with Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” which is fitting considering the circumstances:

Got any Moog Doodle songs of your own that you’d like to share? Please do so in the comments.

May 25, 2012
Bob Moog Doodle Hits Google Homepage

Yesterday, the Bob Moog Google doodle hit Google’s home page in some parts of the world (where it was already May 23), but now it’s up for the rest of us.

The doodle honors the birthday of Robert Arthur Moog, who founded Moog Music and invented the Moog synthesizer. Here’s how Google portrays Moog with its new Knowledge Graph results:

Appropriately, the doodle is playable, not unlike Google’s previous Les Paul doodle. I wonder if the Moog doodle is a productivity killer too.

It should be noted that the doodle’s interactivity does not work for everyone. So far, it’s unclear why this is the case. We tested in in the office, with the same browsers on identical machines. For some it worked, and for others, it didn’t. When it doesn’t work, it just clicks through to Google’s search results for “Bob Moog”. This is essentially how Google’s non-interactive doodles work.

Like the Les Paul doodle, you can also record your music with the Moog doodle. Perhaps this one will get Rickrolled too.

Google’s interactive doodles are generally among their most popular. Beyond these two, the Pac-Man and Freddie Mercury doodles stand out in one’s memory:

Earlier this week, Google ran a doodle created by a second grader who won the company’s annual Doodle 4 Google contest.

Now, enjoy Junip enjoying a Moog:

May 23, 2012
Bob Moog: Google Doodle Celebrates Inventor’s Influence

Today’s Google Doodle, which went live yesterday in Australia, features a cool little playable synthesizer that harkens back to a Doodle from last year featuring a Les Paul guitar in honor of the legend’s birthday. And while a lot of people will be enjoying a nice little break from the monotony of the workday today, most of them won’t realize the impact the instrument had on modern music.

Bob Moog, who studied electrical engineering at Columbia in the ’60s, teamed up with composer Herbert Deutsch to create a small, portable synthesizer unlike any already available on the market. The beauty of the instrument was that it was a lot lighter and more versatile than the others, and the strange sounds it was capable of making drew in musicians who were doing radical stuff at the time, including The Beatles, The Monkees, and The Doors. But the instrument’s influence has trickled down through the years, even through the many changes music has seen, and has been used by such popular groups as the Beastie Boys and They Might Be Giants. It was also used in music featured in the Stanley Kubrick film “A Clockwork Orange”.

Moog said he never made an instrument for himself, understanding instead that everything he did was for the people who used them.

“Artist feedback drove all my development work,” Moog said. “I’m an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers. They use my tools.”

Moog–whose name rhymes with vogue–founded two companies for manufacturing musical instruments and received a Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement in 1970. He passed away in 2005 at the age of 71 from a brain tumor.

May 23, 2012