Organ

A keyboard instrument that is played using one or more manuals (another term for keyboard) and in many cases, a pedalboard. There are a number of types of organs, with the most famous being the pipe organ, in which wind moving through metal or wooden pipes produces the sound, which may vary in timbre and tuning, depending upon which set of pipes are selected. Sets of pipes are called “ranks” and are accessed using controls known as “stops.” Another type of organ is the electronic organ, which generates its sounds electronically, using either oscillators (as in the combo organs manufactured by Vox and Farfisa) or rotating tonewheels (as in the Hammond B-3). More recently, digital organs, which utilize both oscillators and sampled pipes, have become the most cost-effective replacement for the pipe organ.