Divided loyalties here. My personal preference is for the unaccompanied, and unamplified human voice, but...

Every musical instrument, from the humblest knocking together of a couple of sticks to the mightiest organ, is to a greater or lesser extent artificial, and the first user of each of them has been an innovator. What has made the instrument acceptable is a combination of refinement, artistry, and the passage of time.

Most instruments can give me considerable pleasure when played well, so despite my Luddite tendencies I try to welcome such developments as these, though I do quietly relish the thought of a power cut. Just as long as we are not talking automatic drum machines, backing tracks and miming. A line has to be drawn somewhere, and that one is mine.

I have heard the purple people pleaser in action (it was being a church organ on that occasion) and I enjoyed it. Like any innovation acceptability or otherwise is in the hands of the person wielding the novelty item. I would far rather hear a gifted player on one of these instruments than a hopeless amateur on a priceless Stradivarius, or some two year old with baby's first drumkit.