Mashable reports on the process of making the Google Moog:
Why do Google Doodlers build the things they do? They’re fans, that’s why. When Google’s Chief Doodler Ryan Germick and Google Engineer Joey Hurst decided they wanted to build the Google Moog Synthesizer Doodle, it was to “Pay tribute to someone who was like a patron saint of the nerdy arts,” said Germick.
Germick told Mashable that he was a huge Robert Moog fan. Moog, who died in 2005 and would have been 78 today, developed what is widely recognized as the first commercial synthesizer. Previous versions were the size of closets. Germick called him “a passionate toolmaker.”
Hurst and Germick collaborated on last year’s playable Les Paul guitar Google Doodle, but it was Germick who brought this project to Hurst — who actually celebrated his birthday one day before Moog’s — as a kind of a challenge. “Joey is an amazing engineer and I love to come up with a way to stump him,” explained Germick.
They even released a how-to for those who really want to learn how to play the mini-moog:
