Google is celebrating what would have been the 78th birthday of electronic music pioneer Bob Moog with an interactive doodle. The interactive synthesizer pays homage to the founder of Moog Music, who created a sound that has been described as assertive, bouncy, exotically wheezy and occasionally explosive.

Moog was born and raised in New York City, and paired with composer Herbert Deutsch in the mid-1960s to develop a voltage-controlled synthesizer module. The portable, relatively easy-to-use synth yielded a range of various sounds.

Other synthesizers were on the market when Moog introduced his version. However, his synthesizer was known for being small, light and versatile. Moog’s machine became so popular that The Beatles used it on their album ‘Abbey Road.’ Such jazz musicians as Herbie Hancock and Sun Ra, rock group the Monkees and rap group the Beastie Boys even used the Moog machines on their albums as well.

Moog died in 2005 at the age of 71 from a Glioblastoma multiforme brain tumor. The New York Times wrote an obituary for the musician, and of the Moog machine, said “a note might, for example, explode in a sudden burst, like a trumpet blast, or it could fade in at any number of speeds.”

Written by: Karen Benardello