What they say

Posted: 18 October 2013

Revised: 27 March 2024

As the site has now been live since 1999, I decided on its fourteenth anniversary in 2013 to pull together some of the comments received from visitors over the years. Starting to compile them by trawling back through thousands of emails, I had to stop at some point for practical reasons, thus the list below represents but a fraction of the total. Nevertheless, the entries chosen fairly reflect the views received from pipe organ builders, digital organ makers, amateur and professional musicians, scientists, university and college lecturers, school teachers, dictionary compilers, museum curators, students, clergy, music publishers, hobbyists, journalists and music lovers from across the world. Had there been a significant volume of negative comments I would have included them in the interests of balance but there have only been a few, of which not a single one is worth reproducing in view of its insulting or otherwise offensive nature. Such is the internet. The list has been augmented from time to time, with recent comments appearing first.

Some of the material below has been edited to protect the identities of the authors, whom I should like to thank for their support and kindness. It is good to know that the site apparently satisfies a need.

This site is stunning in both the variety and the number of articles.

Turns out there’s far more to it [pipe organs and their simulation] than you might think, as I found out when I started to read Colin Pykett’s remarkable website. This guy covers so much on the subject, from physics, acoustics, history and emulation to construction methods, tuning, and so much more.

The very best reference site is [Colin Pykett’s website] and this is a treasure trove of background aspects of pipe organ technology and history.

No synthesizer, or sampler for that matter, will be indistinguishable from the real thing and the reasons are very well explained by Colin Pykett.

Trendline synthesis simplifies the process of creating custom harmonic spectra for musical instruments. With just four parameters per prototype spectrum, this tool invented by Colin Pykett generates convincing pipe organ timbres in no time.

As with most topics relating to pipe or virtual organs, Colin Pykett has written an excellent article on the subject of reproducing extremely low frequencies.

May I add my thanks to the legion who have expressed appreciation for your work - so thorough, rigorous, clear ... I never found until today such a fine explication as yours [about mixture stops]

Thank you so much for turning your attention towards Haskells ... [see here and here] ... I would like to just reiterate that your articles are a treasure trove of information, and I've taken a lot of inspiration from them. [from an organ builder who has designed and voiced Haskell pipes]

Thank you so much for your extensive and informative website ... I am greatly impressed by your insight, knowledge and commitment.

I was inspired by your article on Elgar's op 28 [his organ sonata in G]. (from an eminent UK recitalist).

Thank you for your article on contact bounce when using pipe organ keyboards for electronic midi-based instruments.

Thank you for your informative website. Though I find much of the material beyond my ken, it is enormously interesting to read.

Just wanted to thank you for the reworked Handel temperament - just trying on hpschd and initial impressions are very good. Currently recording Scarlatti ... [from an eminent recording artist]

I have been reading articles on your website with great interest, and like most visitors I suspect, am quite slightly awestruck by the detail and depth of your knowledge [from an eminent UK City Organist]

First of all congratulations ... on your immensely detailed and helpful website

I remain grateful for your website and continue to learn from it often

Your website is very precious as it is providing lots of advice

May I say how indebted I am to your vast pool of knowledge, accessible to all in laudably understandable form through your excellent website! I say that having trained with Grant, Degens and Bradbeer ...

Let me congratulate you for the high quality of all your articles and the amazing quantity of information provided by your website. A precious link for a better understanding of the organ acoustic.

I am fascinated by your website which is expanding my horizons to previously unimaginable limits! Congratulations on your work. My interest is realistic pipe organ synthesis and your trendline synthesis offers a most interesting avenue to explore.

Thank you for your wonderful website on organ matters ... [it] gives exactly what I was looking for in one place - a wonderful resource which deserves to be known more widely.

Let me start with thanking you for the amazing website and papers that you have assembled on the organ. I have read many of the articles several times over and have thoroughly enjoyed them. I am really impressed by your thorough approach and your tasteful reviews of various organ types. I feel that you really understand the various organs instead of just applauding the organs you are familiar with and criticizing the organs you aren't familiar with (as many seem to in this area).

I'd like to say how very much I've enjoyed reading your articles - especially on Elgar's sonata and on electronic organs ... your "tentative reconstructions" (eg Bellahouston Cavaillé-Coll) really got me thinking ...

I recently found your [website] and I'm very impressed with the content, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.

I want to thank you for the inspiration to pursue this [analysing the frequency spectra of organ pipes]. It's been a challenge but I've enjoyed it a lot.

I am particularly interested in your use of trendline synthesis in generating sound samples. I am really quite impressed in how realistic it sounds.

Thank you for your wonderful website and the exceptional knowledge you kindly share.

A huge thank you for the totally absorbing website you have developed - a wonderful resource, which I look forward to being able to spend more time on in the near future.

I have just read with great interest your article 'The electronic reproduction of very low frequencies'. Very helpful and informative, thank you.

Yet another interesting and well considered article [how many audio channels do digital organs need]. Everything is, as ever, splendidly communicated.

I know you only from your marvelous website ... Your efforts are well appreciated.

I have been very pleased to read/hear what you cover in your recent article [on double ambience]. It provides concrete evidence for belief in something that is incredibly reasonable and obvious.

This is an interesting site and a real "candy store" for those who love organs of all kinds and want to dig deeper into the engineering, history and so on of the King Of Instruments [Organ Historical Society, USA, see database reference to the Wurlitzer organ opus 99 at Oakland California].

Thank you for this beautiful and generous website.

We came across a wonderful essay on the subject [of designing pallet valves] by Colin Pykett ... I suggest that anyone needing to scale pallets absorb this data. [from the website of the American organ builder D C Schroth at dcschroth.com/2016/05].

I'll have to retire early so I can read all of your site. I like the sitemap.

VERY nice web site! Very well laid out and constructed. Did you do this yourself or do you pay someone to keep the site current? Thanks for the excellent pix and sharing your work!!

Thanks for maintaining your website - it's still the go-to resource for interesting info on pipe organs.

I have, again, enjoyed reading (and learning from) your articles. I thank you for both the research and your way of recounting what you have discovered.

Your website is the best coverage on pipe theory I have seen. Thank you for making it available.

Thank you for your wonderful resource on organs online.

You deserve a large thank you from the internet music community for your efforts.

Let me congratulate you for your excellent and informative website.

I really enjoy the work you've done, and especially like the audio clips.

I was delighted to find your amazing website and so do enjoy your devotion to the re-creation of vanished organs.

My gratitude for the very useful information on Elgar's organ sonata that I got from your website [from an eminent European organist preparing to record the work]

Thank you for your help, and for your fantastic website which I have both enjoyed very much, and relied on as I continue my research [from a leading American organ builder who is researching the development of Hope-Jones's unit chest actions in the USA]

Kudos to you on such a thorough article on his [Hope-Jones's] electric actions. It has been most enlightening.

Might I again offer thanks for your clear prose that provided a most straightforward article about mixtures, especially why their "popularity/necessity" has enjoyed changing fortunes over time.

Thanks for this virtual organ [Prog Organ] which gives me so much pleasure.

I recently discovered your wonderful website, and I have only begun to explore its incredible insights.

I shall enjoy working my way through the remainder of your very informative website and pass the link along to others with similar interests.

I've been enjoying your website, not least for providing an unbiased opinion of digital/virtual and pipe organs.

I did want to thank you for your work. You have provided people like me with a resource which is very difficult to get anywhere else, in a field which is often in the hands of professionals who are less than willing to give detailed information about their products.

I have been a keen reader of your website articles, which have been very helpful indeed in terms of trying to work out the best method for speakers, amplification, etc.

I've just been reading, with a mixture of awe, enlightenment and - where appropriate - amusement, your article on 'how the flue pipe speaks' ... I appreciate your wisdom and the scope of your knowledge.

Please tell me more about the organ and the recording that you introduced. At one point I was convinced it was the live recording of the actual pipes in the church! [from a retired CEO of an electronic organ firm, relating to recordings of the Hope-Jones organ at Pilton as simulated by the Prog Organ virtual pipe organ]

I was delighted to read your latest article about electric action. As ever, it was wonderfully clear and the ideas thoughtfully expressed. As you mention, involving microprocessors seems an obvious solution in a number of cases, often providing elegant solutions, but so often they are "trapped" in the era in which they were constructed. What you detail in TinyTran would be worthy of consideration and adoption by ... the trade.

I wanted to thank you for the brilliant work you've done in the science, the physics on organ pipes and how they speak, and to let you know I put theory into practice - and it works! [from an organ builder relating to the reed pipes on a band organ]

Might I thank you for yet another fine article (re phase) on your website. As ever, your attempt to express ideas that often demand some complex maths to those for whom such tools are alien, is outstanding. I do hope that you won't find me cheeky declaring both gratitude and delight for your careful use of words. There remain few who would either bother to distinguish, or know the difference, between effective and efficient, for instance.

Your technical skill both in digital music and as a performer is impressive.

Thank you for a very informative website.

Thank you so much for this swift and helpful response. I now know how to proceed. [Re loudspeaker connections for digital organs]

I would like to express my gratitude for your making available this wealth of information on the organ.

I must thank you heaps for the article with its attached references [simple surround sound]. I found it most interesting.

Thank you for taking the time to reply, I wish I saw this email a lot earlier [end corrections of organ pipes].

Thank you for advice, it's truly appreciated [end corrections of organ pipes].

These articles [how flue and reed pipes speak] are so far ahead of anything else I have seen that I wish you would extend them

I have never seen such in-depth treatment of how flue pipes actually work. These give insights that ought to seem important not only to organ designers and voicers, but also to players.

I have just listened to your recording [of a Bach chorale prelude]. The definition given to the bass part by the [quiet 16 foot] reed is just the thing I hear in my head when playing such a piece (well, we can all dream). Nice phrasing, with plenty of "space" for the inner detail to come through under the nicely-sustained chorale tune.

I'm grateful for the benefit of your past experience in the use of JFET opamps.

Like I said, your digital theatre organ actually sounds good.

That [theatre organ] is one of the few electronic organs I have heard that actually sounds good.

Your article on Resultant Bass was a relief to me, in that it revealed to me that I am not the only one for whom "difference tones"/acoustic bass just do not work.

I am glad that I stumbled upon your site, and that you appear to be still producing content.

When I listen to your 'prog-organ' demonstrated on your web site, I am impressed with the authentic sound and I feel that it would be much more suitable than [an alternative commercial system].

I write to thank you for your article on the Hope Jones organ at Pilton. We, at [a firm of pipe organ builders] are very appreciative of your research.

I took your disk to site, played it there with the wick turned up, and the effect is amazing! [relates to a pipe organ simulated by Prog Organ when re-played in the original building].

Even on postage-stamp laptop speakers, the [Prog Organ] recording sounds super – I look forward to letting it rip on the big home system.

Have enjoyed your web site, are the papers all available as pdf?

Thank you again for both your website & for your personal reply [on electric actions]. Your help is truly appreciated.

Thank you for any help you may provide [on electric actions] and also for your extensive and engrossing website.

I have just read your article "The End of the Pipe Organ?" and I am very glad to have my reinforced-concrete prejudices - supported by my ear - backed up by somebody who really does have a technical understanding of the business.

The site’s content and organisation are excellent and worthy of a man of your calibre. I would think that it is probably unique the world over.

I was doing some internet research on Dr. Winston Kock and I came across your article titled "Winston Kock and the Baldwin Organ". I enjoyed the article ... Reading your article and writing this e-mail has brought back a lot of fond memories for me.

I have greatly enjoyed the articles on your website, particularly those concerning Robert Hope-Jones' organs.

It was with some excitement that I stumbled upon your excellent website regarding pipe organs and their virtual counterparts. Your website offers wonderful insights into the workings of organs and how to go about designing VPO's

Do you mind if I print off your "How Synthesisers Work" article and distribute it to [some university music technology] students in a class of mine?

Just saying thanks for a great website - no acknowledgement or reply required!

Endeavouring to find some information on a book I have, I came across your excellent article on the two Hope-Jones brothers Robert and Frank ... Once again thank you so much for the trouble you have gone to on my behalf. Your efforts are really appreciated.

I've enjoyed hearing your 3 sound demos of [the Hope-Jones organ at] Pilton. It all sounds quite musical and tonally delightful to me, despite what so many people say about how HJ organs sounded. Thanks for doing this and bringing it to my attention.

Very nice website; much appreciated breath of sanity in a world of adverts and nonsense!

Your articles are always interesting, and get me thinking.

I stumbled to your site and found the Prog Organ VPO very interesting. I heard some of the mp3's as well, it sounds so great! Like a real organ.

Your site is amazing and extraordinarily informative. Have you ever considered pulling together all the articles and publishing them in some form in a book - I'd be your first customer!

Thanks, once again, for another informative and most clearly written article. [Re electromechanical capture systems]

I found your article on your website (the updated one on Digital Organs originally written for Organists’ Review) very interesting.

I found myself particularly intrigued by ‘Prog Organ’ your virtual pipe organ.

Once again, many thanks for the continued pleasure that Prog Organ gives me.

An excellent article, as usual. [Re console scanning using PIC microcontrollers]

I thank you for your interesting website!

Thanks again for your attention and for all your very instructive articles.

I continue to read your various articles and often point people in the direction of your website since there is much sense and useful information imparted therein.

I thank you for your work in preparing the most recent article on your site. [Re Willis's Infinite Speed and Gradation system]

Let me congratulate you on the overall excellence of your website. I have pored over most of your material in great detail, and have found it invaluable in every sense. Long may it prosper, and may you have infinite time to add to its library for many years to come.

Thank you again for your superb site where I find so instructive articles and so nice mp3.

Thank you so much for your long and considered reply [re house organs - digital or pipe?]

Thank you for your fine articles on scaling and voicing.

Your articles were a great read!

I must say how much pleasure I have had from my Prog Organ. It's worked very nicely with very little trouble over the years.

I just wanted to thank you for the hard work and if you ever need any information about our side of the industry [electronic pipe organ transmissions] please ask.

Please allow me to share my gratitude and compliment you on this page [Age-Related Hearing Loss and Organs]

For citation in the Hope-Jones entry in the forthcoming new edition of Grove, what is the proper bibliographic form of citation for your article 'Robert Hope-Jones: the Evolution of his Organ Actions . . . ' ?

I am very impressed with your work, for the knowledge and the clear manner of writing in which you are able to share that knowledge, and the selflessness in so doing. That said, had you a book published I would own a copy, and if lucky enough, perhaps even one personally autographed.

Thanks so much for all your help. The story [about the organ which later appeared in the New York Times] is much better because of your input. I appreciate your well thought out replies and know that you have made an excellent contribution to this story. Thanks again. I will let you know when it runs.

Thank you sincerely for your reply, and so prompt!

What I really want to do is continue reading your fine work; it takes more digesting than I can hold in memory.

My compliments to your labor and knowledge about the organ; I have read your work for a long time and watch for updates.

It was with much interest that I read your recent article on resultant bass. Your observations match my own made over the years.

Prog organ continues to give me enormous pleasure. Thank you for that.

I have found your online article about hearing loss and organists most useful.

Thank you for your wonderful well-written, very informative & fascinating article on Dr. Kock and the Baldwin sound reproduction system.

I am Chairman of [an Organists'] Association. A number of members noticed your excellent and balanced article on digital organs in the OR [Organists' Review, November 2009].

Your web-site has been extremely enlightening and I'm grateful for your articles and devotion to reproducing the sounds of pipe organs.

I would like to thank you for the great wealth of detailed information you provide for all those interested in the organ. I spent many hours yesterday reading your various topics, and was greatly enlightened. I know of no other authorative source covering many of the subjects.

After reading several of your articles, I am much better informed on the subject of digital organs.

I must say that the articles you consider, research and publish are always most interesting and informative, especially to a church organist who read Physics and Maths at university and now spends his time teaching pupils about computers/computing. Not only is the content helpful, but also the language you employ to convey your ideas; many thanks indeed.

Perhaps it’s the writer’s generosity of spirit and ability to communicate in a way that even a layman can understand. Bravo! I’d like to express my gratitude not just for the information in the articles but for the way that the information is presented. It’s been very helpful and inspiring.

Thank you for your technical articles, which those of us interested in the nuts and bolts are very grateful for.

I have just discovered your web site and found it most interesting, informative and entertaining. I too have a degree in Physics and a great interest in pipe organs.

Just to let you know that with the help of your splendid articles on your website and some comments in Whitworth (The Electric Organ) I have managed some organ archeology ... I am not given to flattery, but I must say your web site is quite the best I've come across for technical information: clearly written articles, consistent style, adequate citation and easily navigable, with plenty of cross-referencing. Many thanks; it must have been a huge job.

Thank you for writing the article [on the reliability of electronics in pipe and digital organs] and making it available on your website. I have also enjoyed the musical samples of the various organs as played on your Prog Organ. No response to this E-mail is needed or expected. The only intent was to say THANK YOU and to tell you I have read most of the articles you have posted since I have considerable interest in electronic organ design. With sincerest thanks.

I read with interest your new article on reliability and obsolescence of electronics in organs. In fact I read periodically articles on your site. I do appreciate your writing, and hope you continue to add to your articles.

I found your article on reliability [of electronics in pipe and digital organs] fascinating. Your point about obsolescence is well made.

I have found it [Prog Organ] so reliable and easy to use.

I recently discovered your "Evolution of HJ Organ Actions 1889-1903" article, and just HAD to print it for my files - all 67 pages of it - marvellous!

I was greatly interested to discover your article on recreating vanished organs, and particularly the section devoted to the Bellahouston organ ... I congratulate you on your skillful recreation of these beautiful sounds as part of your fascinating project.

Thank you for all the very interesting and useful information on your website. I particularly enjoyed the page about recreating vanished organs ... Thank you again and I look forward to reading and learning more from your site.

Thank you very much for your articles on pipe and electronic organs. I read the one on Winston Kock and the Baldwin Organ with particular interest, since I played on a Model 5 at a Christian Science Church in [a town in] NY for many years. Your biography of Kock showed that he was a remarkable person! I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed reading your articles.

Thank you for your efforts in presenting your website and especially in providing insight into Kock’s developments and your 1980 Wireless World article on analog tone shaping – which I have just read and enjoyed ... I have enjoyed the quick tutorial with organ note generation – and quickly found there is a dearth of that kind of understanding.

Thanks for the many excellent and interesting articles on your website.

I look forward to reading more of your terrific articles.

I always value your wisdom when it comes to fact based appraisal of organs and digital emulations.