I have been reading this thread, started by Mikey Mills, and want to
put a different perspective on it.  I will intentionally leave the
identity of every individual and organization out of the discussion
for obvious reasons.

A few years ago, I followed with interest the complete ground-up
restoration of a carousel organ in New England.  The park owners wanted
to have the organ in top operating condition.  To make the organ easier
to operate, they included the installation of a MIDI system in addition
to the restoration of the roll feeder.  Since the restorer had little
or no experience with MIDI, I helped out as an unpaid consultant on
that aspect of the project.

The organ went through a thorough and complete restoration, the Hunt
MIDI system functioned flawlessly and everyone was very impressed with
the performance of the machine.  It had been a very long time since it
had sounded so good!  I also converted all of the parks rolls to MIDI
files for my standard conversion fee and life was good.

Other than at the initial unveiling and an occasional special event,
the organ stands silently in the middle of the carousel.  In its place
is a boom box playing (weakly) some recorded carousel organ music.
A person (or persons) of influence have decided that the organ was
too loud and would "hurt the children's ears".

Hopefully, this is an unusual story.  The owners had decided on their
own that the organ needed a full restoration, raised their own money
to have the work properly done, recognized the advantages of installing
a MIDI system and so on, yet the organ sits silently.  As we all know,
a restoration is at its peak the day it is completed and the countdown
clock starts on that day toward the next restoration (possibly decades
away).  Just think about how much more likely the scenario would be if
the owners did not have any skin in the game.

Jack Breen
Southborough, Massachusetts