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Tag: Les Paul

  • Bob Moog Google Doodle Plays The Synthesizer

    There’s a new Google Doodle honoring Robert “Bob” Moog getting ready to go live tomorrow. However, if you visit the Google Australia homepage, you can enjoy it now, seeing how it’s already tomorrow down under. The same applies with Google Japan. What you’ll find when you navigate there may indeed rival some of Google’s most memorable Doodles, at least in terms of its cool factor and as a time-waster.

    For those who may be unaware, Moog invented an analog synthesizer called, surprisingly enough, the Moog Synthesizer. To celebrate Moog’s 78th birthday–you guessed it–Google took a page from the successful Les Paul Doodle and provided us with a playable Moog Synthesizer, which also doubles as the Google Logo, as seen in the lead image. Much like the recordable guitar that was the Les Paul Doodle, the Moog Synthesizer Doodle is capable of recording up to four tracks, which, according to 9to5Google.com, can be shared on Google+.

    Aside from the recording feature, there are a number of sound effect options including mixers, oscillators, filters and envelopes. There’s also a dial for pitch on the left side of the Doodle, and all of the effects are usable, giving the creative types tons of options to play with.

    It should be noted that some in WebPro office were experiencing difficulty with getting the Moog Synthesizer Doodle to play. When some of my coworkers clicked the keyboard, they were taken to the search results page for Robert Moog instead of getting sound in return. Another coworker discovered that if you open the Les Paul Doodle in a separate window, you can play both Doodles at the same time, meaning we’re just a working drum kit Doodle away from having a workable band that uses Google Doodles as instruments.

    As indicated, the Moog Synthesizer Doodle will be live in the United States on May 23rd (tomorrow), but it is already live in Google Australia and Google Japan. Have fun wasting the rest of your day trying to hack out the opening part to Europe’s “The Final Countdown.”

  • Google’s Les Paul Doodle Was A Productivity Killer

    Too bad these folks didn’t write for an Internet news company, because then, their time on the Les Paul Google Doodle could be viewed as research… What we have here is, apparently, the Google Doodle that celebrated guitar legend Les Paul’s birthday with an interactive guitar doodle cost millions of theoretical dollars in lost productivity. The reports are in the same vein as the fantasy football productivity reduction scare. The same “alarms” have been raised about March Madness, as well.

    Although these fears were successfully addressed in 2007, that doesn’t stop these reports from popping up four years later. The rebuttal in question:

    “Every day, employers lose money by paying people to take smoking breaks, go to the bathroom, refill coffee mugs and make small talk around the water cooler,” [John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc,] said. “Most employers understand that not every minute of every workday is dedicated to work. In fact, in today’s 24-7 global economy, it is likely that work bleeds into our personal lives. As a trade-off, employers should expect and allow workers’ personal lives to seep into the workplace.”

    Nevertheless, if the bean counters are to be believed, the Les Paul Google Doodle was responsible for $268 million of lost productivity.

    Theoretically, anyway.

    The method with which the $270 million price tag was reached is as follows:

    The Les Paul Google Doodle was on the homepage for two full days, and RescueTime analytics showed users spent an average of 26 seconds more on the Google homepage than normal during that period.

    If you do the math (740 million x 2 x 26 seconds), that means 10.7 million man hours were spent playing with the Les Paul Google Doodle. ExtremeTech estimated the average Google user earns $25 per hour, which would mean the interactive guitar cost companies $268 million worldwide in lost productivity.

    Again, this is taking into account that every second of every work day is used to further the profits of your employer, something the previous block of quoted text addressed, along with other productivity myth-busting responses.

    However, when you consider all the creative things you can do with Google’s latest batch of doodles, especially with the Les Paul logo, maybe these productivity reports aren’t so far-fetched after all. When you also consider the Les Paul doodle — which will be available at Google as long as the Internet exists, apparently — allows would-be guitarists to save their work, you realize some folks probably spent a little bit of time trying to perfect whatever song they were attempting to play.

    Furthermore, a quick YouTube search of “les paul doodle” shows a nice amount of uploads, and when you apply the “uploaded today” filter, you see these submissions are still rolling in. The question is, were these done by people who impact the productivity bottom line or people who have a lot of spare time on their hands?

    Anyway, how about a song?


    Too much time on their hands submission or number-cruncher for a think tank neglecting his duties to rock out like Jimmy Page?

  • Les Paul Google Doodle Now Forever Playable

    Google has provided us with a permanent way to zap productivity, as it has announced the final resting place of its smash hit Les Paul Doodle.

    On Thursday, Google unveiled a playable doodle to honor guitar pioneer Les Paul on what would be his 96th birthday. The famous musician and inventor died in 2009.

    Not only could you play the doodle guitar with your keyboard or by strumming with your mouse, but you could also record your creations and share them across the web. Les Paul Doodle Songs became a pretty popular trend on YouTube, with people recreating everything from the Titanic theme song to Stairway to Heaven. The Les Paul playable doodle even got the obligatory Rick-roll.

    @GoogleDoodles
    Google Doodles    With all the great tunes you’ve created, we had to give the #LesPaul doodle a permanent home. Keep on rockin! http://t.co/9Pwdfve 2 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    This latest interactive addition to the vast doodle collection is already one of the more popular doodles ever, sure to challenge the much beloved Pacman doodle for the title of “most loved time-waster ever.” Now, it will be playable for eternity at google.com/logos/2011/lespaul.html.

    Before we (most likely) leave the Les Paul Doodle for good, here’s one more video of the thing in action. This time it’s Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello with his own little creation:

  • Les Paul Google Doodle Gets Rickrolled

    Of course it did. Yesterday’s nifty Les Paul-inspired Google Doodle was put to good, familiar use by an artist named Joe Sabia, who is very gifted at remixing web videos. While I’m sure there were many different attempts at various songs, check out Josh’s article for some examples, Sabia was wise enough to record his creation.

    Sabia, as pointed out by Boing Boing, covers the unforgettable tune by Rick Astley, a song that was made even more famous by becoming an unforgettable meme. That’s right, you just got Rickrolled by a Google Doodle. Concerning the RickRolled phenomenon, KnowYourMeme.com has an extensive background:

    The bait-and-switch phenomenon had its beginning on imageboard site 4chan as a spin-off of an earlier practical joke known as duckrolling, in which an external link with a sensational title (i.e., a specific picture or news item) would be redirected to an edited image of a duck with wooden wheels.

    According to 4chan founder m00t, the “Rickroll” phenomenon began on /v/ (videogame board) circa May 2007[2], when someone posted a link to Rick Astley’s music video disguised as a sneak preview for the then newly released videogame Grand Theft Auto IV. Due to the the trailer’s high demand at that time, GTA fans on /v/ fell victim to the bait-and-switch prank and the joke became quite popular on 4chan. This account has been further corroborated by Wikipedia as well as Google Insights, which shows that search interest in “rickrolling” apparently began in April / May 2007.

    So yeah, you can blame 4chan, but if you do, do it quietly, lest you become a victim of an Anonymous-style DDoS attack.

    Here are a few other creative uses of the Les Paul Google Doodle, including “Stairway to Heaven” for all you Zeppelin fans out there.

    The Star Spangled Banner:

    Sad Song:

    The Godfather Theme:

    Imagine:


    Did we leave any out you might have enjoyed? Let us know in the comments.

  • Google Doodle Celebrates Les Paul, Lets You Record Your Own Track

    Today’s Google Doodle is a whole lot of win. Not only does it honor a legend, but it is probably the most fun Doodle to interact with that Google has ever displayed.

    Today, the Google homepage features a guitar in honor of Les Paul’s birthday. Les Paul, of course, is the great American musician and inventor whose contributions to the electric guitar pretty much shaped the way we hear music today. You can find his name on one of the most popular and we-known guitars in the world, the Gibson Les Paul. Les Paul died in 2009 at the age of 94.

    Not only is the Google Doodle fun to look at, but it is also a fully playable guitar. You can pluck single strings or strum chords to your heart’s delight, or to your office mate’s chagrin. You can either use the mouse to play, which is tough to do if you are actually attempting to play a real song, or you can use your keyboard.

    When using the keyboard, make sure you click out of the search bar and into the doodle itself or you’ll just end up searching for ddgkd kdkf oui oui.

    When you think you’ve perfected a track, you can record your performance with the record button, that serves as the bottom of the “g.” Clips up to 30 seconds will be given a link by Google so that you can share them with your friends.

    Some people have already been experimenting with the Doodle, and have put some videos up on YouTube. I give the Rugrats and Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time clips A’s for nostalgia.

    YouTubers have also already figured out some other good ones –

    Want to play the intro to Metallica’s “One?” (No word yet on the ending)

    DJDG AJAG DJDG AJAGK DJDG SJSG AJAG

    How about “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic?

    K KK K JK K
    K JK K L P L
    K KK K JK K JK KL G

    Or Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me?”

    Z ZXCV VCXZ ZXCC X Z ZXCV VCXZ ZXCX Z

    Ok, I guess I’ll stop. Or else I’ll never get anything done today.