What you need is a Sampler. There are various hardware samplers out there, and some software versions, too.
If you are wishing to use your sampler live on stage, then
the answer is not cheap. You need a keyboard as well. Such musical machines are:
Kurzweil K2500S,
K2600S, or the new Kurzweil PC3K8 (which does not have a sampler in it, but can play samples you load into it).
Emu and Ensoniq also made keyboards with samplers.
Software wise, I am not into the software end of things, but I do know there are several out there. Problem is (if you want to play live on stage) you also need a good laptop computer with a good sound card having MIDI capability, along with a small MIDI controller keyboard. This is why I argue that using computers to make music is not cheap as is often cited by its proponents. It all adds up.
If you are only concerned with your home studio, and already have a modern computer, etc., then of course look for software samplers.
Sample playback devices like the Kurzweil I mentioned above, also allow you to synthesize the sample - meaning you process that sample wave, through the whole synthesizer engine, and can do way-out things with it.
The one good thing, that has not been discussed yet, is that with a sampler, unlike the Boss clapper, you can then load infinite new samples into it as your library grows, and get constant new use and application for it.
Samplers allow you to record new sounds using a microphone and save the sound, or record directly into an audio input (to record sounds directly, i.e. guitar, singing, other synthesizers), and then of course, the very nice thing is you can load professionally recorded sounding samples from other sources, as long as you purchase the right to use them.