16 ms·

Google's HTML5 synthesizer for Moog's 78th birthday

192 points by pak 14y ago

fungi 14y ago
"Upgrade to a modern browser" that's a bit snarky... i'm on Firefox 12
- wvenable 14y ago
  I'm on Firefox 12 and it worked perfectly.
  - LukaD 14y ago
    That's the point. It works perfectly fine in Firefox 12 and yet they tell you to upgrade to a modern browser.
    - Digit-Al 14y ago
      I'm on Firefox 12 and it does absolutely nothing. I also use Chrome and it works fine on that.
- rplnt 14y ago
  Welcome to the world of Opera users. Google is being dick as always, just ignore it (sometimes you have to change user-agent though). They have their valid reasons (money).
  - sigkill 14y ago
    It's strange because Mozilla gives Google money, and I don't really know how they make money from Chrome.
    - rplnt 14y ago
      Google gives money to Mozilla (and to Opera). They basically pay for users using the search. They want to avoid the risk of Microsoft (or anyone else really) paying more than they want to afford. I think Opera had bing as a default search in some of the recent versions. Also, with Chrome they encourage users to search more (instant search) => more ads, more money.
      - sigkill 14y ago
        Oh yes, I totally forgot Instant Search. So if I understood you correctly, Google gives Mozilla money to set the home page to Google.com and not the other way around. I guess that makes more sense that way. Thank you.
moocow01 14y ago
I feel a little bit mixed being that Google seems to be using this to market Chrome. I have the latest version of Firefox and Safari and Google is informing me that I need a modern browser to experience it, which actually seems to just be Chrome. Seems pretty passive aggressive.
- masklinn 14y ago
  It also seems pretty much bullshit, I opened the page in chrome and the doodle doesn't seem to do anything but link to the "Bob Moog" search in either browser.
- EastSmith 14y ago
  Agree. Google nuked Firefox is what really just happened. It was really fun, while Google was using its home page powers to mock IE for missing features, but I am on Firefox Beta Update channel and they tell me to "upgrade to a modern browser". It is disappointing.
  - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    They are as bad as Microsoft now. Microsoft used to show the "upgrade to a modern browser" banners to everyone. At least now they can actually say it's modern, before it was linking to IE8.
- lordlarm 14y ago
  It works fine in Opera, for once.
- schme 14y ago
  I have firefox 12 (release) on Windows and it works fine.
  - droctopu5 14y ago
    On the right, you can play and record compositions. When I tried opening someone's saved song in Firefox, the Play button did nothing. But it worked in Chrome.
leeoniya 14y ago
working ok on my FF nightly
anigbrowl 14y ago
[Posted this earlier today when it turned up on google.com.au, but the thread had falled off the front page by the time I posted it. I thought people might find this interesting now that it's back.] The doodle is reminiscent of a Minimoog [1], but with several simplifications to make programming easier and more musical. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moog_synthesizer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moog_synthesizer Mixer section The large knob at the left is overall level (which does not equate to silence at its minimum setting, probably for UI simplicity). The three knobs to the right govern the volume of 3 individual oscillators. Oscillator section The leftmost 3 knobs define the pitch octave range for each of the three oscillators. LO is a subsonic frequency mainly used for modulation purposes in real life. #2', 16', 8' etc. refer to the length, in feet, of the pipe on a pipe organ that will produce tones of that frequency. A 32 foot long pipe produces a very deep bass tone (about 16 Hz, probably sounds like noise on most speakers), a 16 foot pipe produces a tone exactly one octave higher, and so forth. There are no 64 foot pipes that I know of, hence the LO setting. It's not possible on this little synth, but normally you would use those super-low frequencies as modulation sources for other things. The two knobs in the center allow tuning of the oscillators across a 2-octave range. Really, this ought to be graduated in semitones. If you turn down the center oscillator and put the other two on identical settings, you should, in theory, get the same sound only twice as loud, but the doodle is a little bit buggy and sometimes pegs one oscillator an octave above or below the other. It's easiest to just reload periodically. On a real-life analog synth of that generation, the oscillators would drift out of tune and need to be calibrated periodically; also, the tuning would change as the machine warmed up over the first half-hour or so of operation, so early electronic keyboard players often had difficulty staying in tune with the band. It was this pitch instability that caused everyone to rush towards digital synthesis at the end of the 1970s, although nowadays you can get very stable analog oscillators. The rightmost 3 knobs set the shape for each oscillator; triangle, saw, inverse saw, and pulse waves with 10%, 25% and 50% duty cycles respectively. I think there is something amiss with the display of the saw waves on oscillators 1 & 2. Saw vs. inverse saw makes no difference on a single oscillator but where you have 2 or 3 choosing different directions for the wave can lead to interesting textures. The shape of the oscillator affects the harmonic content thereof. A triangle wave sounds very close to a sine wave - a piercing pure tone - while being computationally inexpensive. (Stable sine waves are surprisingly hard to generate on the fly unless you have a lot of DSP power, and even digital synthesizer manufacturers often cheat by using lookup tables for sine waves rather than generating them.) A saw waves contains all possible harmonics and is a good basis for brassy sounds like those of trumpets. Square waves (pulse waves with a 50% duty cycle) sound 'hollow' because they only have odd harmonics, and are a good basis for synthesizing woodwind sounds, where the absorbent nature of the material dulls the sound somewhat. Combining pulse waves of different duty cycle can lead to texturally interesting effects, although this is much more noticeable when the length of the duty cycle can be modulated, as opposed to merely switched. Filter section Something has gone terribly terribly wrong here, because this does not behave like any Moog synthesizer I have ever used. The top left knob controls the filter cutoff of a low pass filter, ie the frequency above which higher harmonics will be cut off. This is sort of like the effect you get if you sing a continuous AAAAAH tone with your mouth open and then gradually close your lips. Normally the knob tot he immediate right could control resonance, which boosts the signal around the cutoff frequency and produces an intense whistling/shrieking sound as it is turned up to maximum. High resonance and low cutoff settings act like a spotlight upon the timbral complexity of the oscillator output and are a staple of electronic music. 2. http://www.timstinchcombe.co.uk/synth/Moog_ladder_tf.pdf http://www.timstinchcombe.co.uk/synth/Moog_ladder_tf.pdf I am not sure what the rest of the knobs are supposed to do. They seem to allow oscillators 2 and 3 to be individually filtered, but unfortunately when I hold down a key and tweak the filter knobs the sound tends to break up. This is probably because the adjustment of filter and resonance controls in DSP require constant recalibration of filter coefficients, which is computationally expensive and not well implemented here. It is not normal to filter individual oscillators on an analog synthesizer. Normally one wants to apply a single filter to the mixed sound of the oscillators and modulate that with an envelope or low-frequency-oscillator - which is what I believe is supposed to be happening here, but it's too inconsistent for me to be sure. . Visually, this looks (slightly) reminiscent of a Moog Ladder filter [2], but that's usually a 4-stage transistor ladder, not a front panel set of controls. This is not how a synth of this style normally works, which is a real pity. It does not help that there are no tooltips; I've been making electronic music for 15 years and can't figure out exactly what's supposed to be going on here, so I feel bad for anyone who is trying to learn something from playing with this and getting frustrated. I tried looking at the javascript [3] but it's unreadable outside of an editor and I have neither the time nor the inclination to troubleshoot it. 3. http://www.google.com.au/logos/2012/moog.2.js http://www.google.com.au/logos/2012/moog.2.js Envelope section This is the simplest part; the envelope defines the volume behavior when you press a key. The topmost knob is attack, or how fast the sound fades in; very fast for a plucked instrument like a bass guitar, slow for a string sound. The sound swells to maximum over the duration of the attack time, then falls back to the sustain level, adjusted by the middle knob. The last knob governs release, how fast the sound fades away after the envelope completes its cycle. If you set this very short the sound will die even if you hold a key down. Due to some oddities in the input processing event queue, as with the oscillators, the envelope's behavior is rather less than consistent. As for the switch and the modulation wheel, I'm not clear on what is connected to what, for the reasons described above. I'm guessing there is an invisible low frequency oscillator for vibrato/tremolo purposes (modulation either the base frequency or the amplitude slightly to give a sound some extra texture), but the lack of tooltips and inconsistent behavior make them difficult to use in any predictable way. If you are fascinated by this tool but frustrated, as I was, by the implementation problems, then you might like Morningstar (http://bitterspring.net/ms/morningstar/ http://bitterspring.net/ms/morningstar/) - a basic html5 emulation of a popular Korg synthesizer/groovebox. Or Audiotool (http://www.audiotool.com/app http://www.audiotool.com/app) - a fully fledged html5 electronic music tool that sounds quite good considering it runs in the browser, but which may be overly complex for the novice.
whichdan 14y ago
Chrome or not, this is by and far my favorite Google Doodle. Every single knob works.
- masklinn 14y ago
  > Every single knob works. Not a single one works for me, Chrome or not. edit: actually, in Firefox (latest, non-nightly) it looks like it could work (knobs can be activated but don't do anything). Likewise in a recent Webkit nightly. But Chrome 17 is unresponsive, the doodle just links to a search.
  - sim0n 14y ago
    Works perfectly in my Chrome (19.0 on OSX).
    - masklinn 14y ago
      So, basically, Chrome 2 versions behind is not a modern browser but for some reason Google forgets to tell me about it. Nice.
  - jonknee 14y ago
    How are you still using Chrome 17? You should have been auto-updated a long time ago.
    - masklinn 14y ago
      > You should have been auto-updated a long time ago. GSU has been banned from my machine (since their GSU/Google Earth shenanigans), and Chrome has no built-in ability to update without GSU (or even say that there's an update available). So it gets updated when I think about updating it. Not that I care much about it, my primary (if not only, due to tech demos like this one) use for Chrome is as a flash player.
juanpdelat 14y ago
why it doesn't work on my iPhone if it's html5?
- LukaD 14y ago
  It doesn't work because they probably haven't implemented the necessary html5 features on iOS' browser yet (e.g. Audio API).
  - seclorum 14y ago
    In fact, Audio on Safari-iOS has been intentionally crippled by Apple (its not "un-implemented" features, its intentionally-not-implemented features") so as to prevent any disruption of iTunes revenue stream from Audio-playing websites.
    - hej 14y ago
      iTunes revenue stream. Ha. Playing mere music files is simple enough. I think mobile Safari can handle that.
    - ZenPsycho 14y ago
      I really don't think that's the reason. Not only does Apple not actually make very much revenue from iTunes, it is probably more to do with audio hardware on an iphone being limited.
      - kamjam 14y ago
        Not only does Apple not actually make very much revenue from iTunes Really? I guess 6% of it's net sales isn't a huge amount i guess, but when that equates to £6.3 billion I wouldn't regard that as small fish.
        robmcm 14y ago
        Zing
        14y ago
thomasfl 14y ago
Best Google frontpage. Ever.
- zobzu 14y ago
  clearly this one is very well done
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
gouranga 14y ago
I'd really like a standalone version of this :)
- fuzzix 14y ago
  I recommended the Minimoog VA VST to some people earlier: http://home.no/gunnare/ http://home.no/gunnare/ A lot of fun if you have a Windows installation knocking about. Free VST host, if you need one: http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm Not quite the same thing, but it has the same level of accessibility in the interface - a testament to the engineers who put the Minimoog together. I liked this brief history of the Minimoog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLx_x5Fuzp4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLx_x5Fuzp4 edit Similar (cross-platform) fun is to be had with the Bristol project's Mini: http://bristol.sourceforge.net/mini.html http://bristol.sourceforge.net/mini.html
  - gouranga 14y ago
    Thanks for links :)
- jeremysmyth 14y ago
  If you want something that isn't a toy and emulates all the best features of analogue synths, try AlsaModularSynth -- http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/ http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/ -- also available as amsynth in many Linux repositories. It's got demos that emulate Moogs in all their glory. Steep learning curve as you'd expect from a full modular synth, but lots of samples and demos, and works with MIDI so you can play it with a real keyboard.
  - anigbrowl 14y ago
    Jeepers, Ihaven't been to that page in several years and it looks exactly the same. It's OK to tidy up the homepage once in a while, ALSA guys!
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
gulbrandr 14y ago
As usual, the sprites: https://www.google.com/logos/2012/moog-hp-k-sprite.png https://www.google.com/logos/2012/moog-hp-k-sprite.png https://www.google.com/logos/2012/moog-hp-sprite2.png https://www.google.com/logos/2012/moog-hp-sprite2.png
richbradshaw 14y ago
In case anyone is wondering, here is how to use it: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LBGGiW2zpUM/T7wKadv8ZBI/AAAAAAAAJM4/Oe78w676X5k/s1600/moog12-key.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LBGGiW2zpUM/T7wKadv8ZBI/AAAAAAAAJM...
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  Why not hear how from moog themselves? :D http://www.moogmusic.com/content/google-doodle-how http://www.moogmusic.com/content/google-doodle-how
j_col 14y ago
Once again we have the latest Google marketing piece hitting the top of HN, getting tired of it (already commented about this here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3898130 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3898130). Also note that this one is being used to market Chrome, even to Firefox users, which is pretty insidious. See this tweet with screenshot from Dave Flanagan: https://twitter.com/__DavidFlanagan/status/205166128178282496 https://twitter.com/__DavidFlanagan/status/20516612817828249...
- chrislo 14y ago
  The Web Audio API is being standardised as part of the W3C Audio WG (disclaimer: of which I am a member). We have a number of browser vendors on board, including Mozilla, and have recently reached a consensus to push forward with the (webkit-proposed) Web Audio API rather than the Mozilla-proposed MediaStream processing API and Audio Data API. You can find much more information here: http://www.w3.org/2011/audio/wiki/Main_Page http://www.w3.org/2011/audio/wiki/Main_Page We'd really welcome input from developers and browser implementers at any stage.
- jsprinkles 14y ago
  In the series of comments you linked to you indicate that you work at Google. Based upon the rest of your comment history, I'd posit that your resentment and distrust of Google isn't healthy for you or the company and that you should consider leaving. If I were your lead, I'd fire you (but refer you elsewhere, if technically savvy), simply because your attitude seems to indicate that a positive working relationship isn't possible between you and Google. Nobody has to agree with everything an employer does (ever), and I certainly don't agree with everything my employers do -- sometimes, that disagreement was public when I posted comments here under my real name. This was always a passing phenomenon, though, something like this: > I think we could do better at X, and I'm definitely hearing what you're saying. You, on the other hand, have months upon months of comments that betray a, to steal your word, insidious resentment of the company that you work for. You are semi anonymous, which is good for you but a terrible representation of Google; there is only one comment that I found where you forget to say "their" and you instead say "our". I'm genuinely not trying to be an asshole, but I've seen you for a long time be negative about Google, and I don't think continuing to work there is going to make it any better for you or the company. There's a legally-questionable comment in your history, too, regarding ongoing litigation, which at my employer would be an immediate termination. EDIT: I went back far enough to find that you're not anonymous.
jgrahamc 14y ago
The amount of traffic that being on the Google Doodle gets you is stunning. Moog signed up for CloudFlare in a hurry today.
TeMPOraL 14y ago
Quite nice attention to detail, and also some interesting subtle hints: - an arrow pointing to keyboard if you didn't pressed it - a flash of light going through the mixer panel if you haven't used it And also you can play by using keys from 1 to 0.
samratashok 14y ago
That was intuitive.
kshitiz_grgs 14y ago
On of the best google doodle :)
- minaguib 14y ago
  This is sick. It even has permalinks for what you play ;) http://g.co/doodle/q4q9mg http://g.co/doodle/q4q9mg
LukaD 14y ago
You can find all the controls explained here: http://www.google.com/doodles/robert-moogs-78th-birthday http://www.google.com/doodles/robert-moogs-78th-birthday
noduerme 14y ago
This fully crashed my version of Firefox (12.0) on OS X, with a spinning wheel of death, after getting stuck producing an incredibly annoying sound for about 30 seconds. If that's supposed to make it a good ad for Chrome, it backfired. Can someone tell me why slapping this on the Google homepage and allowing it to run and crash in other browsers isn't as bad or worse than putting a really annoying and CPU-heavy Flash or Java program up there? At least if it were made with proce55ing or AS3 it would have worked.
laserDinosaur 14y ago
The hell? I can get this to work in Firefox, but not Chrome.
Kiro 14y ago
Where can I read a more detailed technical explanation? I'm particularly interested in how they generate the sound.
modernerd 14y ago
Here's a quick rendition of Doctor Who: http://g.co/doodle/a7r7gh http://g.co/doodle/a7r7gh (Love the four track recorder.)

192 points by pak 14y ago

fungi 14y ago

"Upgrade to a modern browser" that's a bit snarky... i'm on Firefox 12

wvenable 14y ago
I'm on Firefox 12 and it worked perfectly.
- LukaD 14y ago
  That's the point. It works perfectly fine in Firefox 12 and yet they tell you to upgrade to a modern browser.
  - Digit-Al 14y ago
    I'm on Firefox 12 and it does absolutely nothing. I also use Chrome and it works fine on that.
rplnt 14y ago
Welcome to the world of Opera users. Google is being dick as always, just ignore it (sometimes you have to change user-agent though). They have their valid reasons (money).
- sigkill 14y ago
  It's strange because Mozilla gives Google money, and I don't really know how they make money from Chrome.
  - rplnt 14y ago
    Google gives money to Mozilla (and to Opera). They basically pay for users using the search. They want to avoid the risk of Microsoft (or anyone else really) paying more than they want to afford. I think Opera had bing as a default search in some of the recent versions. Also, with Chrome they encourage users to search more (instant search) => more ads, more money.
    - sigkill 14y ago
      Oh yes, I totally forgot Instant Search. So if I understood you correctly, Google gives Mozilla money to set the home page to Google.com and not the other way around. I guess that makes more sense that way. Thank you.

moocow01 14y ago

I feel a little bit mixed being that Google seems to be using this to market Chrome. I have the latest version of Firefox and Safari and Google is informing me that I need a modern browser to experience it, which actually seems to just be Chrome. Seems pretty passive aggressive.

masklinn 14y ago
It also seems pretty much bullshit, I opened the page in chrome and the doodle doesn't seem to do anything but link to the "Bob Moog" search in either browser.
EastSmith 14y ago
Agree. Google nuked Firefox is what really just happened. It was really fun, while Google was using its home page powers to mock IE for missing features, but I am on Firefox Beta Update channel and they tell me to "upgrade to a modern browser". It is disappointing.
- TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
  They are as bad as Microsoft now. Microsoft used to show the "upgrade to a modern browser" banners to everyone. At least now they can actually say it's modern, before it was linking to IE8.
lordlarm 14y ago
It works fine in Opera, for once.
schme 14y ago
I have firefox 12 (release) on Windows and it works fine.
- droctopu5 14y ago
  On the right, you can play and record compositions. When I tried opening someone's saved song in Firefox, the Play button did nothing. But it worked in Chrome.

leeoniya 14y ago

working ok on my FF nightly

anigbrowl 14y ago

[Posted this earlier today when it turned up on google.com.au, but the thread had falled off the front page by the time I posted it. I thought people might find this interesting now that it's back.] The doodle is reminiscent of a Minimoog [1], but with several simplifications to make programming easier and more musical. 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moog_synthesizer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moog_synthesizer Mixer section The large knob at the left is overall level (which does not equate to silence at its minimum setting, probably for UI simplicity). The three knobs to the right govern the volume of 3 individual oscillators. Oscillator section The leftmost 3 knobs define the pitch octave range for each of the three oscillators. LO is a subsonic frequency mainly used for modulation purposes in real life. #2', 16', 8' etc. refer to the length, in feet, of the pipe on a pipe organ that will produce tones of that frequency. A 32 foot long pipe produces a very deep bass tone (about 16 Hz, probably sounds like noise on most speakers), a 16 foot pipe produces a tone exactly one octave higher, and so forth. There are no 64 foot pipes that I know of, hence the LO setting. It's not possible on this little synth, but normally you would use those super-low frequencies as modulation sources for other things. The two knobs in the center allow tuning of the oscillators across a 2-octave range. Really, this ought to be graduated in semitones. If you turn down the center oscillator and put the other two on identical settings, you should, in theory, get the same sound only twice as loud, but the doodle is a little bit buggy and sometimes pegs one oscillator an octave above or below the other. It's easiest to just reload periodically. On a real-life analog synth of that generation, the oscillators would drift out of tune and need to be calibrated periodically; also, the tuning would change as the machine warmed up over the first half-hour or so of operation, so early electronic keyboard players often had difficulty staying in tune with the band. It was this pitch instability that caused everyone to rush towards digital synthesis at the end of the 1970s, although nowadays you can get very stable analog oscillators. The rightmost 3 knobs set the shape for each oscillator; triangle, saw, inverse saw, and pulse waves with 10%, 25% and 50% duty cycles respectively. I think there is something amiss with the display of the saw waves on oscillators 1 & 2. Saw vs. inverse saw makes no difference on a single oscillator but where you have 2 or 3 choosing different directions for the wave can lead to interesting textures. The shape of the oscillator affects the harmonic content thereof. A triangle wave sounds very close to a sine wave - a piercing pure tone - while being computationally inexpensive. (Stable sine waves are surprisingly hard to generate on the fly unless you have a lot of DSP power, and even digital synthesizer manufacturers often cheat by using lookup tables for sine waves rather than generating them.) A saw waves contains all possible harmonics and is a good basis for brassy sounds like those of trumpets. Square waves (pulse waves with a 50% duty cycle) sound 'hollow' because they only have odd harmonics, and are a good basis for synthesizing woodwind sounds, where the absorbent nature of the material dulls the sound somewhat. Combining pulse waves of different duty cycle can lead to texturally interesting effects, although this is much more noticeable when the length of the duty cycle can be modulated, as opposed to merely switched. Filter section Something has gone terribly terribly wrong here, because this does not behave like any Moog synthesizer I have ever used. The top left knob controls the filter cutoff of a low pass filter, ie the frequency above which higher harmonics will be cut off. This is sort of like the effect you get if you sing a continuous AAAAAH tone with your mouth open and then gradually close your lips. Normally the knob tot he immediate right could control resonance, which boosts the signal around the cutoff frequency and produces an intense whistling/shrieking sound as it is turned up to maximum. High resonance and low cutoff settings act like a spotlight upon the timbral complexity of the oscillator output and are a staple of electronic music. 2. http://www.timstinchcombe.co.uk/synth/Moog_ladder_tf.pdf http://www.timstinchcombe.co.uk/synth/Moog_ladder_tf.pdf I am not sure what the rest of the knobs are supposed to do. They seem to allow oscillators 2 and 3 to be individually filtered, but unfortunately when I hold down a key and tweak the filter knobs the sound tends to break up. This is probably because the adjustment of filter and resonance controls in DSP require constant recalibration of filter coefficients, which is computationally expensive and not well implemented here. It is not normal to filter individual oscillators on an analog synthesizer. Normally one wants to apply a single filter to the mixed sound of the oscillators and modulate that with an envelope or low-frequency-oscillator - which is what I believe is supposed to be happening here, but it's too inconsistent for me to be sure. . Visually, this looks (slightly) reminiscent of a Moog Ladder filter [2], but that's usually a 4-stage transistor ladder, not a front panel set of controls. This is not how a synth of this style normally works, which is a real pity. It does not help that there are no tooltips; I've been making electronic music for 15 years and can't figure out exactly what's supposed to be going on here, so I feel bad for anyone who is trying to learn something from playing with this and getting frustrated. I tried looking at the javascript [3] but it's unreadable outside of an editor and I have neither the time nor the inclination to troubleshoot it. 3. http://www.google.com.au/logos/2012/moog.2.js http://www.google.com.au/logos/2012/moog.2.js Envelope section This is the simplest part; the envelope defines the volume behavior when you press a key. The topmost knob is attack, or how fast the sound fades in; very fast for a plucked instrument like a bass guitar, slow for a string sound. The sound swells to maximum over the duration of the attack time, then falls back to the sustain level, adjusted by the middle knob. The last knob governs release, how fast the sound fades away after the envelope completes its cycle. If you set this very short the sound will die even if you hold a key down. Due to some oddities in the input processing event queue, as with the oscillators, the envelope's behavior is rather less than consistent. As for the switch and the modulation wheel, I'm not clear on what is connected to what, for the reasons described above. I'm guessing there is an invisible low frequency oscillator for vibrato/tremolo purposes (modulation either the base frequency or the amplitude slightly to give a sound some extra texture), but the lack of tooltips and inconsistent behavior make them difficult to use in any predictable way. If you are fascinated by this tool but frustrated, as I was, by the implementation problems, then you might like Morningstar (http://bitterspring.net/ms/morningstar/ http://bitterspring.net/ms/morningstar/) - a basic html5 emulation of a popular Korg synthesizer/groovebox. Or Audiotool (http://www.audiotool.com/app http://www.audiotool.com/app) - a fully fledged html5 electronic music tool that sounds quite good considering it runs in the browser, but which may be overly complex for the novice.

whichdan 14y ago

Chrome or not, this is by and far my favorite Google Doodle. Every single knob works.

masklinn 14y ago
> Every single knob works. Not a single one works for me, Chrome or not. edit: actually, in Firefox (latest, non-nightly) it looks like it could work (knobs can be activated but don't do anything). Likewise in a recent Webkit nightly. But Chrome 17 is unresponsive, the doodle just links to a search.
- sim0n 14y ago
  Works perfectly in my Chrome (19.0 on OSX).
  - masklinn 14y ago
    So, basically, Chrome 2 versions behind is not a modern browser but for some reason Google forgets to tell me about it. Nice.
- jonknee 14y ago
  How are you still using Chrome 17? You should have been auto-updated a long time ago.
  - masklinn 14y ago
    > You should have been auto-updated a long time ago. GSU has been banned from my machine (since their GSU/Google Earth shenanigans), and Chrome has no built-in ability to update without GSU (or even say that there's an update available). So it gets updated when I think about updating it. Not that I care much about it, my primary (if not only, due to tech demos like this one) use for Chrome is as a flash player.

juanpdelat 14y ago

why it doesn't work on my iPhone if it's html5?

LukaD 14y ago
It doesn't work because they probably haven't implemented the necessary html5 features on iOS' browser yet (e.g. Audio API).
- seclorum 14y ago
  In fact, Audio on Safari-iOS has been intentionally crippled by Apple (its not "un-implemented" features, its intentionally-not-implemented features") so as to prevent any disruption of iTunes revenue stream from Audio-playing websites.
  - hej 14y ago
    iTunes revenue stream. Ha. Playing mere music files is simple enough. I think mobile Safari can handle that.
  - ZenPsycho 14y ago
    I really don't think that's the reason. Not only does Apple not actually make very much revenue from iTunes, it is probably more to do with audio hardware on an iphone being limited.
    - kamjam 14y ago
      Not only does Apple not actually make very much revenue from iTunes Really? I guess 6% of it's net sales isn't a huge amount i guess, but when that equates to £6.3 billion I wouldn't regard that as small fish.
      - robmcm 14y ago
        Zing
      - 14y ago

thomasfl 14y ago

Best Google frontpage. Ever.

zobzu 14y ago
clearly this one is very well done

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

gouranga 14y ago

I'd really like a standalone version of this :)

fuzzix 14y ago
I recommended the Minimoog VA VST to some people earlier: http://home.no/gunnare/ http://home.no/gunnare/ A lot of fun if you have a Windows installation knocking about. Free VST host, if you need one: http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm Not quite the same thing, but it has the same level of accessibility in the interface - a testament to the engineers who put the Minimoog together. I liked this brief history of the Minimoog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLx_x5Fuzp4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLx_x5Fuzp4 edit Similar (cross-platform) fun is to be had with the Bristol project's Mini: http://bristol.sourceforge.net/mini.html http://bristol.sourceforge.net/mini.html
- gouranga 14y ago
  Thanks for links :)
jeremysmyth 14y ago
If you want something that isn't a toy and emulates all the best features of analogue synths, try AlsaModularSynth -- http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/ http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/ -- also available as amsynth in many Linux repositories. It's got demos that emulate Moogs in all their glory. Steep learning curve as you'd expect from a full modular synth, but lots of samples and demos, and works with MIDI so you can play it with a real keyboard.
- anigbrowl 14y ago
  Jeepers, Ihaven't been to that page in several years and it looks exactly the same. It's OK to tidy up the homepage once in a while, ALSA guys!
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

gulbrandr 14y ago

As usual, the sprites: https://www.google.com/logos/2012/moog-hp-k-sprite.png https://www.google.com/logos/2012/moog-hp-k-sprite.png https://www.google.com/logos/2012/moog-hp-sprite2.png https://www.google.com/logos/2012/moog-hp-sprite2.png

richbradshaw 14y ago

In case anyone is wondering, here is how to use it: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LBGGiW2zpUM/T7wKadv8ZBI/AAAAAAAAJM4/Oe78w676X5k/s1600/moog12-key.png http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LBGGiW2zpUM/T7wKadv8ZBI/AAAAAAAAJM...

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
Why not hear how from moog themselves? :D http://www.moogmusic.com/content/google-doodle-how http://www.moogmusic.com/content/google-doodle-how

j_col 14y ago

Once again we have the latest Google marketing piece hitting the top of HN, getting tired of it (already commented about this here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3898130 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3898130). Also note that this one is being used to market Chrome, even to Firefox users, which is pretty insidious. See this tweet with screenshot from Dave Flanagan: https://twitter.com/__DavidFlanagan/status/205166128178282496 https://twitter.com/__DavidFlanagan/status/20516612817828249...

chrislo 14y ago
The Web Audio API is being standardised as part of the W3C Audio WG (disclaimer: of which I am a member). We have a number of browser vendors on board, including Mozilla, and have recently reached a consensus to push forward with the (webkit-proposed) Web Audio API rather than the Mozilla-proposed MediaStream processing API and Audio Data API. You can find much more information here: http://www.w3.org/2011/audio/wiki/Main_Page http://www.w3.org/2011/audio/wiki/Main_Page We'd really welcome input from developers and browser implementers at any stage.
jsprinkles 14y ago
In the series of comments you linked to you indicate that you work at Google. Based upon the rest of your comment history, I'd posit that your resentment and distrust of Google isn't healthy for you or the company and that you should consider leaving. If I were your lead, I'd fire you (but refer you elsewhere, if technically savvy), simply because your attitude seems to indicate that a positive working relationship isn't possible between you and Google. Nobody has to agree with everything an employer does (ever), and I certainly don't agree with everything my employers do -- sometimes, that disagreement was public when I posted comments here under my real name. This was always a passing phenomenon, though, something like this: > I think we could do better at X, and I'm definitely hearing what you're saying. You, on the other hand, have months upon months of comments that betray a, to steal your word, insidious resentment of the company that you work for. You are semi anonymous, which is good for you but a terrible representation of Google; there is only one comment that I found where you forget to say "their" and you instead say "our". I'm genuinely not trying to be an asshole, but I've seen you for a long time be negative about Google, and I don't think continuing to work there is going to make it any better for you or the company. There's a legally-questionable comment in your history, too, regarding ongoing litigation, which at my employer would be an immediate termination. EDIT: I went back far enough to find that you're not anonymous.

jgrahamc 14y ago

The amount of traffic that being on the Google Doodle gets you is stunning. Moog signed up for CloudFlare in a hurry today.

TeMPOraL 14y ago

Quite nice attention to detail, and also some interesting subtle hints: - an arrow pointing to keyboard if you didn't pressed it - a flash of light going through the mixer panel if you haven't used it And also you can play by using keys from 1 to 0.

samratashok 14y ago

That was intuitive.

kshitiz_grgs 14y ago

On of the best google doodle :)

minaguib 14y ago
This is sick. It even has permalinks for what you play ;) http://g.co/doodle/q4q9mg http://g.co/doodle/q4q9mg

LukaD 14y ago

You can find all the controls explained here: http://www.google.com/doodles/robert-moogs-78th-birthday http://www.google.com/doodles/robert-moogs-78th-birthday

noduerme 14y ago

This fully crashed my version of Firefox (12.0) on OS X, with a spinning wheel of death, after getting stuck producing an incredibly annoying sound for about 30 seconds. If that's supposed to make it a good ad for Chrome, it backfired. Can someone tell me why slapping this on the Google homepage and allowing it to run and crash in other browsers isn't as bad or worse than putting a really annoying and CPU-heavy Flash or Java program up there? At least if it were made with proce55ing or AS3 it would have worked.

laserDinosaur 14y ago

The hell? I can get this to work in Firefox, but not Chrome.

Kiro 14y ago

Where can I read a more detailed technical explanation? I'm particularly interested in how they generate the sound.

modernerd 14y ago

Here's a quick rendition of Doctor Who: http://g.co/doodle/a7r7gh http://g.co/doodle/a7r7gh (Love the four track recorder.)