Help me with my sampling scenario

[Tremolaria@aol.com]

Here's my dilemma.

I want to trigger monophonic samples with a footswitch. Simple request I 
would think.

Years ago, I used to use any number of digital delay units with a "sampling" 
feature that would allow you to sample something then hit a footswitch and 
trigger it. Hit it again, and it starts from the beginning. You don't have to 
hold the switch down. you don't have to do anything special. Just hit the 
switch and hear the sample.Great. 

I got greedy and wanted storage so I could call up each sample for each song 
in my live set.things got complicated.

I bought an archaic Akai S612 sampler. Yes, very cheap. It was incredibly 
lo-fi (to my joy) and worked pretty easily. I had MIDI Solutions build me a 
custom MIDI footswitch controller that sent a NOTE ON message at a certain 
note number and NO NOTE OFF, so it would play the complete sample all the way 
through (the samples, by the way are usually three second/one or two measure 
guitar parts...kinda like MBV or Curve type things)

My rig now works like it should.However, I'm sick of carrying 4 rack spaces 
of antique technology. I'm sick of having to load samples from a Quick Disk 
at the beginning of EVERY song, and I'm sick of the sampler not working when 
it doesn't feel like it.I would LOVE to replace it with a newer cheap 
alternative. Something the size of a Dr. Sample would be nice, but I couldn't 
get the Dr. Sample to work like I want it to.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Another way to describe what I want is instead of using guitar samples, say I 
wanted to trigger drum sounds (not loops). You want to hear the complete drum 
sample when you hit the pad/switch, and retrigger it monophonically (not 
polyphonically) everytime you hit it. Besides a $1000 SP808, what could I use?

Thank you
Roger