No reason they have to be. I recently ordered a couple 'Bastl Kastles' to use as oscillators and LFOs (patching them into Xoxboxes and/or each other). Part of t

No reason they have to be. I recently ordered a couple 'Bastl Kastles' to use as oscillators and LFOs (patching them into Xoxboxes and/or each other). Part of the reason some of those old things like DINsync hardware are prized is retro nostalgia, but the other reason is they're using primitive timing systems that have less jitter than the more sophisticated centralized MIDI systems. If you're using DINsync, all your instruments are playing their own sequences and a timing tick is just keeping them aligned. If you're running MIDI then you have to send actual note descriptions over a 31.25 Kbaud serial bus before you can get any sounds out. If you're sequencing from a DAW (not doing realtime processing) and daisy-chaining instruments, forget it ;) I'm currently getting a bank of Delta Labs Effectrons together for delays: old delta-sigma (like SACD, but potato grade) digital delays. It's possible that popularizing this would make Effectrons trendy and pricey, like the EMS VCS3 synth is trendy and pricey… but Bastle Kastle kits are dirt cheap. There's no reason there can't be a delta-sigma digital delay kit with the same functionality as Effectrons and the same or better sound in relevant ways. Tools don't have to be expensive these days.