Robert Moog Google doodle pays, or rather plays, synthesizer creator birthday tribute

Google.com today features an interactive, playable Synthesizer Doodle honoring the birthday of Robert Moog, widely credited with creating the world’s first marketable synthesizer.

Google Chief Doodler Ryan Germick told Mashable that the new doodle pays “tribute to someone who was like a patron saint of the nerdy arts.”

The playable graphic even allows users to make their own digital “synthesizer” tracks by clicking on audio-responsive keys and knobs, according to The Independent. 

Moog, a native New Yorker who played around with an early electronic musical instrument called the theremin when he was a kid, later discovered how to translate electronic currents into sound, dubbing his invention a synthesizer, reported The Independent.

The sound proved revolutionary for the development of modern rock. Moog (whose last name rhymes with vogue, not huge) passed away in 2005 but would have turned 78 today.

Germick today hailed the inventor as “passionate toolmaker,” according to Mashable, comments echoing those made by the man himself: "I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers," Moog said in 2000, reported The Independent.