Bob Conant said in 070406 MMDigest:

> It has been suggested that it isn't helpful to read about them or
> listen to recordings to be able to make judgements on the sounds.

If you are referring to my remarks about recordings, possibly I did
not put things quite accurately enough.

Recordings can help you sharpen your ear and understand band organ
sounds even if you have never seen one.  What recordings alone can not
do is help you understand how the sounds were created.  In addition,
in some cases the recordings available for a particular organ may nor
give you a good idea of how that family of organs should typically
sound either because the recording technique has distorted the sound
or because "repairs and improvements" have altered it.

Once you have decided a particular sound is interesting, you need
access to a lot of additional information.  Numbers and names for pipe
ranks are not enough.  You need to know if the voice is created by a
single pipe or a group and how it is constructed, etc.

> This is, in fact, exactly how I first became acquainted with band
> organs, fair organs, street organs, dance organs and their many
> variations.

Yes.  Recordings are a great way to discover what particular types
please you, and which may not.  They are also helpful is guiding you
in your reading and in asking questions of owners.

Bob mentioned Eric Cockayne's "The Fair Organ" and Romke deWaard's
"From Music Boxes to Street Organs,"  and Bower's "Encyclopedia of
Automatic Musical Instruments."

Yes.  These books, along with recordings, can provide a lot of
insight.  I would add the book, "Waldkirch Street and Fairground
Organs", by Dr.  Herbert Juettemann, translated by Andrew Pilmer.
It isn't cheap, but the copy I bought through Nancy Fratti was worth
every cent.  See http://www.acpilmer.com/book.html

Wallace Venable