As DH is a musician I (rather rudely, perhaps) assumed you would have met some of these features.
The church 'classical' organ has pipe sounds that are measured in 'footages', with 64' being the longest, fattest, and therefore lowest, note, but maybe only cathedrals and the Albert Hall are that big. Most ordinary churches probably have 32' (an octave higher). The lengths halve, and each time raise an octave. Pipes also get thinner, until we get to 1', which is obviously a very high note.
However, to add 'colour' to the sound there are 'in-between' lengths of pipe, with exotic names, 'quint' and 'nazard' - I can't remember the rest off hand.
In the 1930s, the US inventor Laurens Hammond, wanted to make a 'domestic' organ. It was an electro-mechanical instrument, with rotating metal discs between magnets, creating the sound. But it gave a rather 'static' sound, until another inventor, Don Leslie, came up with the rotating speaker, in a solid wooden cabinet. Two different speeds of rotation, fast and slow, could be selected.
The different sounds on the Hammond are selected by sliding 'drawbars, in different configurations. Well, this little Casio has nine sliders, corresponding to the Hammond drawbars, when in organ mode. They also become a 'mixing desk' to control and edit sounds, which can be 'saved' to SD cards.
Synthesizers don't HAVE to be horrid; it's how the players use them that makes the difference!
I have just learnt something! There is an organ with an 128' pipe:
www.nazard.co.uk/organ.html