WASHINGTON – Google is making musicians out of its users Wednesday with an interactive synthesizer in honor of Bob Moog, inventor of the famed Moog line of electronic instruments. He would have turned 78 this week.
With a few clicks of the keyboard, Chrome users can compose and record their very own creation.
The WTOP newsroom was abuzz this morning with reporters, editors and even higher-ups composing songs and playing old favorites. Here are a few samples (DISCLAIMER- These will only play through Google Chrome):
- John Meyer, director of digital media, “The Rose”
- Tim Bracken, traffic reporter, original song
- Jason Fraley, film critic, “The Godfather” theme song
- Paul Shinkman, reporter, “Funkytown”
- Mitch Miller, news director, original song
- Brennan Haselton, reporter/anchor, original song
Moog died in 2005 from a brain tumor.
A childhood interest in the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, led him into a career and business that tied the name Moog as tightly to synthesizers as the name Les Paul is to electric guitars.
Despite traveling in circles that included jet-setting rockers, he always considered himself a technician.
“I’m an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers,” he said in 2000. “They use the tools.”
His famous synthesizers – which became popular with musicians as varied as the Beatles, Sun Ra, Hebrie Hancock and the Beastie Boys – forever changed the landscape of music and introduced a new era where almost anything was possible.
“A note might, for example, explode in a sudden burst, like a trumpet blast, or it could fade in at any number of speeds,” the New York Times wrote in an obituary for Moog.
Moog chief engineer Cyril Lance gives a tutorial of how to best use Google’s doodle:
Share your recordings with us using Google Chrome. Simply hit the record button when you’re ready to play, and then click the link icon to generate a URL. Send us that link by leaving a comment in this story, on Facebook or by emailing webmail@wtop.com.
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