I’ve heard that some organs have a delay between the time the organist presses the key and when the organ sounds. Does this happen with tracker action?
No. Tracker action does not have a delay and never develops one. Delay in the action is characteristic of electro-pneumatic action, where air is let into the pipe by a leather pouch that collapses after a small electromagnet exhausts it. This delay, often very slight when the organ is new, gets perceptibly worse over time. Slider chests with electro-pneumatic pull-downs will have a similar delay that likewise gets worse with the years. In time the pouches wear out and cease to function, often within a single generation. When an electro-pneumatic windchest gets to this point there is no remedy but to replace all the pouches, which costs a substantial percentage of the price of a new organ. Single-note electric chests permit the pipes to speak promptly, but often repeat very badly. Electric slider-chests with “jerk-down” electros are almost as bad. None of these problems occur with tracker action.
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