Wired for Sound

Today I visited the Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ, which is in the Guiness Book of World's Records as the largest musical instrument in the world, with several members of my extended family and an organ builder from Turin, Italy, who had arranged to join us.

As I've suggested before, I think that my skepticism about how successfully political institutions promote new technologies may have a lot to do with with the tragic history of this pipe organ that drove my inventor-grandfather into bankruptcy.

I was impressed with the general hospitality of the organ society, who wants to get the sampling, remixing generation interested in preserving these endangered instruments. They've posted some MP3 files on their website, but I suggested that they post a range of samples in different genres and encourage musicians at Creative Commons to reuse this musical palette.