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My previous Live 2 (I sold it and then bought another one back last year) had some oily stuff coming out from what looked like the glue from the screen cover. But I then realized it wasnāt that (besides thereās no actual glue on the screen cover - I just learned because I peeled it off the other day) but it was the rubber finish that started to wear off in that corner.
I wiped it off and underneath it was just black plastic without the matte coating. It didnāt spread beyond that but I then sold it not long after it so I donāt know if that was just the beginning of a nightmare of oily mess.
That MPC was standing ding vertically on its speakers on display on a bookshelf in my studio. I donāt know if that somehow contributed to it because that room was pretty hot during the summer months (no AC and bad isolation), so it was maybe around 35Ā°C during the hottest days. No exposure to sunlight though, from that location at least.
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Ok, my excitement over the MPC just went off the charts. This is old news to most people but itās the first time I got to try this workflow and itās f** awesome.
MPC as a plugin inside Ableton Live. It was so simple to set up and it works flawlessly! It doesnāt even appear as if running the plugin is that taxing to my Macbook Pro so I hardly even notice it when starting a Live+MPC project. And besides, I can always record stems live and freeze/disable the MPC plugin if that ever becomes an issue.
This is a true gamechanger that brings the best of all worlds to me. Particularly, it gives me the ability to:
- Quickly go from zero to a finished song structure in an environment that is quick and fun to use.
- Spend as much time on mixing and perfecting small details as I want in standalone, without any of that work having to go to waste.
- Record an authentic live jam (convert song to sequence, enable Automation and hit Dub Record and go crazy with q-links and track mutes) and still have the possibility to tweak details that went wrong during the performance.
- Seamlessly transition over to Ableton Live and work on the mixing phase without having to commit to printed stems.
- Continue to work with the awesome MPC hardware in controller mode as if the song is still inside the MPC itself (unlike Ableton Push, I find that the MPC hardware makes you faster, not slower than with a mouse and keyboard).
- Quickly add other elements from Ableton on top of the MPC song, or export a midi track and replace a synth sound.
- Have access to all those wonderful Ableton synth sounds in the end - the one thing I can definitely miss when working on the MPC in standalone.
- Selectively replace an effect only when the one from the MPC wasnāt āgood enoughā. In other words, thereās no need to redo things in Ableton unless it actually enhances the production.
- Use the MPC as a midi control surface for Ableton itself using the excellent MIDI Control mode. Now all automation, whether recorded in the MPC project or on the enclosing Ableton project, can be recorded using the same familiar hardware.
This all make the inevitable MPC Live 2 vs Push 3 Standalone battle a lot less obvious to me. A huge part of what made me buy the Push (besides the amazing pads and sounds/effects at your disposal) was
- The seamless transition from hardware to the DAW.
- Not having to commit to printed stems.
It now looks like those things can be achieved almost as easily on the MPC.
Iāll be totally honest, this even makes me reconsider whether investing in something like the Jura plugin is such a terrible idea after allā¦ 
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Godspeed. Iāve had so many weird bugs when recording Q-link automation and getting the external midi CCs working correctly in standalone. Hopefully it works better in non-standalone
My biggest annoyance with using the mpc vst in Ableton is that you cant use the mpcs transport controls unless you midi map the stop and start buttons
Anyone got a X SE or Keys 61 and a Live2/one?
I assumed that having the X Se registered on my account, and my live 2, it would then allow me to download the SE include plugins - OPX-4, Fabric Collection, Organ, Stage Piano, Stage EP, and Studio Strings - on my Live 2.
Apparently not 
Sorry about that. I donāt connect a lot of gear together but when I did record cc automation to the Hydrasynth, it worked really well.
Normal/internal automation has never failed me but sometimes pad/track mutes are lost when converting a song to a sequence. But thatās a one-time job per song so not a big deal.
Yeah thatās a bit of a shame but not a big deal once working in Ableton. My hand is always hovering that space bar anyway at that time. 
Iām sure I told you about this some time agoā¦ 
And, Jura is really goodā¦ Iād put it up with, maybe above, the Arturia equivalentā¦ and it works really well on the MPC (obviously). I think I paid Ā£60 for it, which, to have it as a VST and as an option on the MPC standalone, was worth it.
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I was able to install them on my Force which I originally owned before getting the Keys61.
Iāll assume youāve registered everything on your InMusic account and firmwareās are up to date.
I think it did take a number of hours from registering my Keys61 for the Force to have the options show up in the setup/menu.
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How long has it been? It took about 24hours then all my X SE plugins were able to be activated on my keys 37.
if after a day it still doesnāt work, contact inmusic support and they will sort you out quickfast. Theyāre actually super helpful
also worth noting to check out how many activations you have. I know youāve mentioned only one other machine, but if youāve potentially installed them on more than 1 computer you might have to deactivate on the inmusic software. I believe most are max 3 active activations but dont quote me
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Yeah - I think I said it further upthread, but I started from the point of view that the MPC was obviously on its way out when I got the Push but have backed way off that idea now. For me they donāt cover the same territory at all, the stuff I want to do in Push is not at all the same as an MPC doing MPC things.
Although for this reason I have less than zero interest in MPC plugins or instruments other than stem separation, with Push Iām constantly trying out new max devices and ways of working, but with the MPC itās just fundamentals. Being able to open the same project in the plugin to track and develop further in live is the icing on the cake.
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Thanks @Suspect_Frequency and @nirun
Thatās great to hear! Spent a while chatting to support last night. Hoping for it to be resolved asap. 
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I really get where you are coming from here. Iām not an MPC user right now (maybe in the near future if STEMS come to standalone though).
Iāve been DAWless for almost a year now but a very long time Ableton and Push 2 user, and after getting a replacement Push from Ableton support very recently. Iāve been back in the Ableton/Push World. As Iām sure everyone is aware, Ableton and Push is incredibly deep and powerful, but in a lot of cases itās not immediate/direct/fun. For sampling for example. In my DAWless setup, a Novation Circuit Rhythm handles that and itās everything that Ableton/Push isnāt. But on the flip side of that, the Circuit Rhythm isnāt anywhere near as deep/powerful.
So I can genuinely see why you say about MPC and Ableton not covering the same territory.
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Absolutely, several people have and Iāve known about it in theory and even tried it in Reason a year ago. But I never got it to work smoothly back then, I ran into performance issues, weird bugs where some midi notes wouldnāt play etc. Itās not until I now tried it again in Ableton that I learned how itās supposed to work in a modern DAW. And itās pure magic! I can literally do all the things I normally do with stems in the DAW, only I donāt need to actually export stems. Well I suppose I do when the project renders but to retain the possibilities to tweak the arrangement and make changes to notes after the project has been imported to Ableton is so liberating. Iām so happy that I gave this another try! And yes, thanks for pushing me towards Ableton, that was clearly the right move for me, regardless of whether the Push 3 is a keeper or not.
Exactly this. Itās just not as immediate and fun and I feel Iām spending much more time thinking, pausing, configuring. Whereas on the MPC the music just flows through me.
That is true. The music ends up sounding different on the Push and Iām still interested in exploring that more. I have no rush to sell anything right now but Iām definitely gravitating towards the MPC over the Push at the moment.
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Havenāt tested this myself, but could you combine the VST + MPC with Ableton Link for that?
Forgot to ask, is that an easy fix? I assume not since it was your biggest annoyance.
Itās super easy to midi map anything in Ableton:
ā¢ click MIDI (cmd + M)
ā¢ click what you want to assign
ā¢ click whatever button/knob you want to use
It wouldāve been cool if it was possible to properly sync the transport though. I assume Ableton link doesnāt work when in controller mode?
*edit: corrected
is it possible to REC on the Live 2 while in VST/Ableton live mode?
I can confirm that it works also for the transport buttons!
Easy enough just to save that into the template project so I never have to set those things again. One thing though: the MPC plugin needs to be running for this to work. At least on my side, Ableton (or really the MacBook) wonāt detect the midi controller device unless itās running in controller mode and the only way to dismiss that screen is if the plugin is running. Since Iāll use this for the MPC projects, thatās not an issue, but I thought Iād mention it in case anyone wonders about the possibility to use the MPC as a generic midi controller. That works, but only if you add the plugin (or I suppose run the MPC2 standalone software in the background).
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One more gotcha: Rec and Over Dub seem to be momentary: it only works as long as you hold the button in. I donāt see myself ever using those for Ableton recordings anyway so itās not a big deal but a bit odd that theyād work differently from the Stop, Play and Play Start buttons.
Side-note: would have loved it if there was a way to do custom midi mappings in ableton like āMute Currently selected trackā, rather than a specific track.
I am just bought a used MPC One (again after four years). I really like so far. but my drums are really missing Abletonās drum buss. Does anybody have a template which comes close to Ableton drum buss to put on my drums? I am a little overwhelmed by the amount of audio effects right nowā¦