Pipe Organs Versus Electronic

In the world of transistor mass production, there will always be those who compare the electronic keyboard and say "See, it can sound just like a pipe organ." Have we not all listened to the toy-like sounds of the imitators and remarked how it was okay, but not quite right to the ear?

Price alone should never be the determining factor, as there will always be underlying surprise and disappointment if that is the only criteria.

The reason being that pipe organs and electronic organs make sounds in different ways. Electronic organs are assembly line created to generate neutral sounds. By contrast, a pipe organ is a unique, custom-designed instrument made to order for a particular enviroment as a cathedral or concert hall.

Electronic organs typically use amplification and playback loudspeakers to produce sound waves that simulate those made by windblown pipes. When notes are played singularly, many electronic organs imitate the sounds of individual pipes with remarkable realism. But played with a variety of voices speaking together, the electronic organ's electrical mixing of tones creates a sound that can be perceived even by those lacking a trained ear as somehow unnatural and lacking the fullness and beauty of individual, separate sounds blended in the ear.

A true pipe organ is a large group of real pipes which each make their own sound from their unique position in the room. Your ear hears a rich mixture of sounds originating from as many different locations as there are pipes playing. The chorus is further enriched by the reflected sounds that are unique to each pipe's physical location in the room. Pipe organs are usually custom designed to the acoustical environment of the room of its installation. Even untrained, casual listeners will be uplifted by the complexity of sounds from a real pipe organ just as one would prefer a live concert to a recording.

The difference between electronic organs and pipe organs is analagous to the difference of monophonic sounds compared to stereophonic sounds multiplied many, many times over.

The comparative differences can be brought down to these points:

• Beauty of Sound
• Power and Unparalled Majesty
• Maintainability for decades past the limits of today's electronics

Electronic organs seldom have any presense aesthetically. In many churches, the physical majesty of the pipe organ is the cornerstone of sanctuary architecture. There is little on the side of electronics past the gratification of a faster product delivery. The true pipe organ still has no equal.