ambient then rhythmic?

[DialaThos@aol.com]

Hi all,

Does anyone here do loop pieces that perhaps start out in ambient fashion 
(no 
real time) and then move into looped rhythmic parts?  I'm trying to figure 
out how one might do this.  Is it necessary to have two units?

I own a Repeater and it seems as though if you start freely there's no way 
to 
then lay down something with a pulse.  In otherwords if you have say 10 
seconds of "ambient" and then start a rhythmic phrase that might be 12 
seconds.. you're out of luck if you want it to line up cleanly with the 
start/stop point, unless of course you keep the "ambient" material to a 
set 
bpm and length to begin with (I'd like to be free with it).  

Is there a way to do this on the EDP?  I'm hunting through the manual 
today, 
but it seems the only way to extend the length of a loop is via insert 
(which 
doesn't overdub on the original material).  

For those of a more graphical nature, I'm trying to do this:

step 1 - AAAAAAAAAA
step 2 - RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Hope this makes sense,
Tom