Today's Google doodle is simply astounding in its complexity and execution. Designed to celebrate the 78th birthday of inventor Dr Robert Moog, it is a fully interactive simulator of one of his eponymous electronic synthesisers.

The Moog synthesiser was a strange, interesting electronic musical instrument that was unleashed in the mid-1960s and subsequently used by many of the forward-thinking bands of the time, including The Doors and The Beatles.

It creates an otherworldly, science-fiction style noise that is unique to the modular voltage-controlled analogue system and is still used today by many composers and artists. Now you can have a go yourself on Google's online version and for free - even a Minimoog these days costs around £4,000.

The doodle itself shares more than just an audio effect or two with its real-life counterpart. As Dr Moog's instruments featured a coming together of electronic components to create different sounds, Google too has used several different web tools to create its virtual version.

"When experienced withGoogle Chrome, sound is generated natively using the Web Audio API - a doodle first (for other browsers the Flash plugin is used)," it posts on its own blog.

"This doodle also takes advantage of JavaScript, Closure libraries, CSS3 and tools like Google Web Fonts, the Google+ API, the Google URL Shortener and App Engine."

Oh, and the company has slapped a virtual four-track tape recorder on to the side, so you can record, play back and share songs via short links or Google+. It'll be interesting to hear what fruits the Google doodle will bear.

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Is this the best Google doodle yet? If you don't think so, let us know what was your personal fave in the comments below...