Maybe order some Weetabix with the new one. 
Funny though, I often find myself doing impromptu overhead tricep curls with mine. Lends itself beautifully to them.
You might have had a dodgy one, but, regardless, the finish is a bit of a dust magnet. Iāve found myself committing to it looking āworn inā, like my guitars.
Lol. Itās 3.4kg!! Thatās not a mobile device. My kids weighed less than that when they were born.
Guitars look nice when worn and used. Black plastic synths look nasty when worn.
using a decksaver and dusting like once a week or two and my X looks like the day I bought it. also if the lights there btw that means there should be nothing stopping you getting some replacement buttons for it? akai might even send you some out
think itās just the LIVE that has that soft touch paint that gets filthy no matter what you do. Assume the X doesnāt have it?
Unfortunately, it is not. Also, currently neither Akai nor any third party (with the exception of MPC Stuff.com, and thatās only on occasion) sell any replacement batteries, so even if you could easily get to it (again, you cannot), having it user replaced is going to take a lot more than you think.
For the record, MPC Stuff.com used to sell the battery for the OG Live for about $200 USD, and that was before the pandemic and massive inflation. I donāt even see the batteries on their website anymore. Havenāt for some time. 
*Update - actually, they sell the Live II replacement battery for $219 USD currently (donāt know if this fits the OG Live though):
Thatās good to know. I really donāt like the idea of having a dying battery that I wonāt be able to replace easily myself. All li-ion batteries die after a few years so that seems like a bad design decision to not make it more user accessible for a product that could last you for at least a decade.
Also good to know that the black Live 2 is a dust magnet. I take it the Retro edition is not?
Went the other way. Sold my Live and bought a One. Prefer the hard buttons than the Menu+Screen - which is really fast. And. You still have to use that combo on the One to access some things like Song mode. Soā¦
Prefer the smaller foot print. Not a lot of desk space
I have both, the Retro is nowhere near as big of a dust magnet as the black Live 2. You just wouldnāt think about it at all with the Retro model.
The upgrade in question would be for a black, so I appreciate the heads up. May have to wait for a retro to come out in the used market, will have to think about whether I want an irreplaceable battery though.
sometimes I think about swapping the X out for a force to try something completely different but I think id regret it. no beef with the X id just like to try the clip launching approach OTB
I have both.
The Force is in storage and the Live is glued to me.
Thereās something about the Live, I guess portability/speaker/immediacy, that make it my goto tool.
I finished an EP with each so Iām not saying one is better than the other.
All I want is to be able to open the Live projects on the Force. Best of both worlds.
The batteries are 18650, among the most common batteries in the world, used for ecigs and other applications, also bose soundlink uses 2 x 18650ās.
I think it is a good choice and relatively easy to replace.
Probably the pack includes a protection and some cabling for charge equalization.
You can find these battery for 10/15 bucks each, or less.
Swapping the batteries probably itās not for everyone, but for experienced users is not that complicated.
Considering people today repair iphones and ipads by themselves, I consider it doable.
I did have a Force, briefly. You can definitely jam with it. But for me, there were just one too many key combos. The flow didnāt work for me.
I love the idea of the Force. But the way you get around it wasnāt always straight forward.
Building your own battery pack is something very common in the RC world. I am actually a little bit shocked at the price of that battery pack! This one for example, a 4S4P 550 mAh pack is $69.
Also, pretty much all quality 18650 cells have built-in protection in them. Afterward, for charging and cell balancing, it is only a matter of soldering the proper wires at the proper place.
Iād venture to say that one could reuse the wiring harness from their MPC Live and build a pack themselves for pretty cheap. Individual 18650 cells are like $6 a piece.
it mostly depends on the battery chemistry. ICR are usually protected because they are more dangerous in case of a short circuit, but itās not uncommon for the protection to fail. IMR usually donāt have a protection but are less dangerous.
Anyway for a commercial product to be certified, you have to provide an external protection.
Ah, Pocket Operators are the perfect weight for you.
I build my own PCās and know my way around a soldering iron. Iāve opened my Live II and can confirm - it is NOT an easy job. At all.
Personally, if I just had one Live 2, Iād keep the black one every time. I wouldnāt be put off by the material.
Also, I get why you might want to future proof against the battery, but lifeās too short to worry about future problems. 
Similar for me. My Force is living in the softcase I bought when I bought it.
Iāve tried numerous times to gel with it but it always frustrates me. I should sell it, but I canāt bring myself to.
It comes down to workflow preference/suitability- Clips vs Seqs.
I always think Clips are superior, they allow you more flexibility, etcā¦ but, in reality, I tend to end up getting stuck in one 8x8 grid of Clips. It introduces option-paralysis.
I get more out of 2 or 3 Seqs with 8 tracks on the MPC (because theyāll be more structured) than I do from one 8x8 grid on the Force.
I have a similar relationship with Ableton. Itās almost too open-ended for the way my mind works. The MPC approach makes me think about structured sections and Iāll work to lengths (4, 8, 16, 32, 64 bars, etc).
