Ziay!

robotron77

I want something like a drum machine and delay pedal combined. It will play back what I played four measures after I played it. Then I will play on top of what I played four measures ago. Is there any software that will do this, a protools plugin or cakewalk plugin, or standalone utility, for free? Howabout hardware that does this?

akira

This is typically known as a phrase sampler or looper. The best-known hardware version of this is the Boomerang (see below URL), but there are also several other companies that offer this. A hardware floor pedal is the way to go if you want to use this for performance, as a sort of one-man band. (Joseph Arthur and Howie Day are two musicians who have been known to do this.)

In terms of software, you can rig this with any recording program that has looping and overdubbing. Just set your tempo and loop points, and start recording while keeping both the playback loop and monitoring channel on. Software is fine if you just want a songwriting tool or are messing around, but obviously it would be difficult to perform with software.