slightly ot: the quest for a groovebox

["Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill" <rs@moinlabs.de>]

Dear Loopers,

motivated by recent discussions on the list regarding groove boxes, I do 
now
venture to find the right groove box for me. My expectations would be:

must-have:
* tap tempo feature
* must both send and sync to MIDI clock
* should be able to sample something and then run it in parallel to the
playing pattern
* at least two pairs of outputs

nice-to-haves:
* the "usual" effects you use for contemporary drum loops
* good realtime controllers
* storage media which make sense

Focus of usage wouldn't be strictly looping, but rather my
free-improvisation dance project, where I'd like to play prerecorded drum
loops (in tapped tempo), and then sample the musicians and modify their
part, which will then become part of the loop (on another track, if
possible).

Does the Roland MC-909 really do all of this (i.e. the must-haves)? Is 
there
any (cheaper) alternative to it? Anybody has experience with the MC-909
(either owns one or has played with one)?

Rainer Straschill
Moinlabs GFX and Soundworks - www.moinlabs.de
The Straschill Family Group - www.straschill.de
digital penis expert group - www.dpeg.de
Eclectic Blah - www.eblah.de