> If they are not producing audio professionally, I'm saying they probably can't tell the difference between 16bit and 24bit audio.
That's not how it works. You can totally hear clipping or noise even as an amateur. Just as an amateur photographer first thing first learns to look out for overlit skies and hilights that aren't really recoverable at all unless they perhaps have access to the camera's RAW files. But unlike in photography, in sound work you typically need to process as well as sum multiple recordings, all while not blowing out the peaks that might just happen to line up.
If anything, dealing with the large dynamic range of 24-bit is easier for the amateur. An experienced pro would probably have a good bunch of tricks in his bag should he really have to mix music in 16 bits, enough to produce something that doesn't sound horrible. The amateur would be more likely to struggle.
I understand in OPs case, someone else (being a professional) has already recorded and mastered the sound of a real live pipe organ. That person of course benefits from working at 24bit, but once he's done mastering, OP is "just" playing back the mastered audio and should be fine with 16bits, I think.
But OP is not just playing back a single mastered recording, it's thousands of simultaneous samples that get mixed together live, presumably. In that case the professional who recorded all these samples can do nothing to prevent the peaks from lining up during playback.
That's not how it works. You can totally hear clipping or noise even as an amateur. Just as an amateur photographer first thing first learns to look out for overlit skies and hilights that aren't really recoverable at all unless they perhaps have access to the camera's RAW files. But unlike in photography, in sound work you typically need to process as well as sum multiple recordings, all while not blowing out the peaks that might just happen to line up.
If anything, dealing with the large dynamic range of 24-bit is easier for the amateur. An experienced pro would probably have a good bunch of tricks in his bag should he really have to mix music in 16 bits, enough to produce something that doesn't sound horrible. The amateur would be more likely to struggle.