By Eliot Van Buskirk, Evolver.fm
The greatest trick Google's public relations team ever played on the world was convincing people to link to its homepage whenever it does something cool like this -- in this case, turning its webpage into a playable Moog synthesizer in honor of the birthday of synthesizer innovator Robert Moog, inventor of the gizmos that bear his name.
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You can't play Google's undeniably awesome Moog web app on the U.S. version of google.com today, because Robert Moog's birthday is Wednesday. But regardless of where you are, you can head over to the Australian version -- www.google.com.au -- to play it today. This is because Australia is always a day ahead of the United States due to the international date line. (Maybe this is why their music hacks are so futuristic.)
Yes, this is a toy, but it goes beyond mere gimmickry. You can tweak any of the knobs to shape the wave, change oscillator pitches, mess around with the filter or envelope and more, with the numerical values for each appearing above the keyboard. Crucially, you can also play the notes on your computer keyboard once you've clicked a note with your mouse, expanding the sonic possibilities and turning it into a real instrument.
The only two glitches we've noticed so far is that the pitch bend/modulator wheel is stuck on the modulator setting, for us anyway (yes, we're using Google Chrome), and the record function doesn't appear to work properly yet.
We expect the latter to kick in once this nifty web app is available in our home country. If the Record feature does start working, this link should play our hastily recorded approximation of the "Axel F" riff.
Still, well done, Google. This is a fitting tribute to the birthday of a great man.
Pro tip: If you want to be able to get to the black keys, start with the keyboard row that begins QWERTY. The black keys are the numbers.
