Ableton Forum

Just curious if anyone had any good templates for this and live 6.

I just picked mine up and have thought of a few good ones already but am curious to see what everyone else is doing.

Did you just buy it?

If so:
Not to rain on the parade, but I wish I hadn't bought mine, though it's too late to take it back.

The keys on mine wore out after less than 40 hours of use (more like 20). Never took it mobile, and in a smoke free environment with no banging on the keys.

I now have 5 keys showing signs that they're about to go, and this unit is essentially new.
I wish I had paid more attention to forum posts before I bought it, as it's a fairly common problem with many budget PCR models (PCR-M1, PCR-30, PCR-M30).

Just FYI,
- zevo

inmazevo wrote:Did you just buy it?

If so:
Not to rain on the parade, but I wish I hadn't bought mine, though it's too late to take it back.

The keys on mine wore out after less than 40 hours of use (more like 20). Never took it mobile, and in a smoke free environment with no banging on the keys.

I now have 5 keys showing signs that they're about to go, and this unit is essentially new.
I wish I had paid more attention to forum posts before I bought it, as it's a fairly common problem with many budget PCR models (PCR-M1, PCR-30, PCR-M30).

Just FYI,
- zevo

Can you provide any other posts stating this. I wish i could agree with you on your opinion but I have extensively researched this on mutiple forums and have never once heard anything like this. Also, what exactly do you mean they are 'about to go'; what symptoms are arising?

Mine's worked fine for years.

I've used my PCR-1 for two years without any problems- except for the crappy audio interface integrated with it. But the keys are fine.

I've got a PCR-50 that I've had for nearly four years. The keys started to die mid last year so I bought this:

Small Keypad Repair Kit

And repaired each keypad (there are two points for each key). Has felt brand new ever since.

BTW, don't try to 'clean' the rubber keypads. If you do, your effectively cleaning off the conductive part of it! I found out the hard way, hehe..

bassreflex wrote:

inmazevo wrote:Did you just buy it?
If so:
Not to rain on the parade, but I wish I hadn't bought mine, though it's too late to take it back.

The keys on mine wore out after less than 40 hours of use (more like 20). Never took it mobile, and in a smoke free environment with no banging on the keys.

I now have 5 keys showing signs that they're about to go, and this unit is essentially new.
I wish I had paid more attention to forum posts before I bought it, as it's a fairly common problem with many budget PCR models (PCR-M1, PCR-30, PCR-M30).

Just FYI,
- zevo

Can you provide any other posts stating this. I wish i could agree with you on your opinion but I have extensively researched this on mutiple forums and have never once heard anything like this. Also, what exactly do you mean they are 'about to go'; what symptoms are arising?

Here are a few from a quick google on it. Search terms "edirol pcr broken key."
I did more research before buying, and saw many more such reports, but I'm in a bit of a hurry now, so I don't have more than 30 seconds to check it out. Sorry...

If I get a chance, I'll look around some more

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... CR-30/10/1
http://dot.cult.bg/esem/?pcrm1

What I mean by about to go is that they are sticking, hanging on and not setting to off, and making scraping noises when depressed.

Yes... I know it doesn't happen to everybody.

- zevo

dru wrote:I've got a PCR-50 that I've had for nearly four years. The keys started to die mid last year so I bought this:

Small Keypad Repair Kit

And repaired each keypad (there are two points for each key). Has felt brand new ever since.

BTW, don't try to 'clean' the rubber keypads. If you do, your effectively cleaning off the conductive part of it! I found out the hard way, hehe..

Hi, how did you remove the keys? I have a pcr-m1 and I'm worried I'm going to break the thing. I'm having problems with the keys not registering, thanks ~

If it's anything like the PCR-50, you just undo the surrounding screws on the bottom (not the ones in the centre, but the outside ones). Once you've done that, the top cover should lift off. Be careful doing this as there's wires for the bender lever and buttons, so you need to kind of open it like a lid of a box.

Once that's off, you'll find that the keys are held in by springs. Remove the springs using some type of small hook, then the keys should just pull out. Remove ALL of the keys, then you'll see the rubber keypads underneath. These should just pull out in strips. You need to apply the conductive grease to the underside of these rubber pads (the small black circles). You'll see where they contact the PCB anyway. Pretty easy job, just annoying taking all the keys out.

Anubis wrote:I've used my PCR-1 for two years without any problems- except for the crappy audio interface integrated with it. But the keys are fine.

Since my recent migration to Vista I was pleasantly surprised that the drivers for the audio interface portion of the controller sounds much better than it did under XP. It apparently locks it into the "advance" mode running at 24/96 and is stable at 10ms latency. btw- Edirol seem to have the best Vista drivers out there for both 32 and 64 bit flavors of the finicky OS. I've tried three of their interfaces.

Thanks a lot Dru for the repair advice!