Question about multiple looping setup

[Siobahn Hotaling <siobahn@nxivm.com>]

Hello everyone -

I am looking for some advice on a looping setup -

I am part of a 4 person a cappella group and we want to start to include 
some looping in our live performances (we used to have 6 members and we 
are trying to recreate some of the layers using just the 4 of us) but we 
aren't sure what is the best way to go about doing it... 

We obviously would need something that each of us could individually cue 
for our parts (i.e. a pedal or something that would be easy to use); 
additionally, a single pedal with multiple inputs (even like the Boss 50) 
wouldn't work, as we would need to have separate signals into the 
soundboard for proper mixing, and that would consolidate our feed into one 
output...

We are not averse to going for a computer-based method if necessary, but 
we definitely would want to do what is most cost-effective AND reliable...

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on a possible setup?  I 
personally have used an Akai Headrush in some of my solo live gigs but I'm 
not too familiar with software-based looping or other devices...

Thanks so much!