Alas, it doesn't really matter what one samples.
    If the regurgitated sound is crackling, distorted, out of balance, and
too offensively loud for the room, it is of no aesthetic value, regardless of
whether it is being judged for its relative realism.
    No matter what the price, I find buzzy, distorted, unnaturally loud
sounds offensive. They do NOT enhance the worship experience. The criterion,
therefore, is not the source (computer or pipes). There are plenty of brash,
unblending, poorly voiced pipe organs. We have all heard them, and are capable of
knowing the difference between poor quality and preferred style.
    If one discards the pipe organ for its imperfections, and sells the
imitation based upon well-crafted simulations of those imperfections, that will
appeal to a select market humorously oblivious to the irony.
    But technical failure is still technical failure, whether it is an insect
lodged in a reed tongue, a disintegrated leather membrane, or a buzzing
speaker cone. Poor balance is poor balance, whether it is an unblending chorus of
real Diapasons, or hideous, distorted parodies of pseudo-French reeds blasted
through speakers. Poorly tuned undulants are still poorly tuned, whether they
are produced by Mr. Skinner's Flutes Celestes, or merely sampled therefrom.
    Is pop and fizzle and piercing feedback any more agreeable than the
hissing of a ruptured corner gusset of a reservoir?
    If, for the sake of argument, we grant theoretical parity to pipe organs
and their electronic imitations, let us acknowledge that they are both
machines, and prone, in different ways, to failures, large and small.
    Whether or not fooling most of the people most of the time is an artistic
or ethical victory is another kettle of worms.

Sebastian M. Gluck
New York City

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