creat 1177

Well, there's also the organ that could be used as a study in human-interface design. Long but steep learning curve (training time measured in years or decades), fairly unforgiving (if you accidentally brush a key, it sounds at full volume; many instruments are located in public spaces so you can't practice in private), requires the use of all four limbs simultaneously (controlling manual keyboards, pedal board, stop knobs or levers, general and division-specific combination pistons, toe studs, swell and crescendo pedals), comes in localized versions that are almost but not entirely like each other (straight vs radiating pedalboard being the big issue).

But the thing is, it's been designed, refined, and debugged over a period of 500 years, and it works exceedingly well in the hands (and feet) of a properly trained operator.

It also went through a period of "bells and whistles" with design complexity that exceeded the ability of the available technology to realize with long-term reliability. This has now largely been redressed both by new technology (including solid-state electronics and microprocessors) and by returning during recent decades to time-tested designs (mechanical key- and stop- actions).

-- Roland HutchinsonÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊWillÊplayÊviolaÊdaÊgambaÊforÊfood.

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