Interchangability of two MPC Touch units on one computer

I would like to buy a second MPC Touch as a backup. However, I don't want to reinstall software to use it. So, my question is: Can you simply unplug the first Touch, plug in the second, and use the second one? In other words, does the computer and the MPC software care about which particular Touch is plugged in?

Doesn't care. It's the software that is authorized, you can attach any controller you like. I've always had several mpcs attached to my computer, all using the same auth details (1.9 and 2.x)

That's great! Thanks for the fast reply with the info, MPC-Tutor.

One other question: If I buy one used, do I have to do anything special concerning Akai? Do I have to associate the serial number of the second Touch with my account?

Not required, but each hardware registered will give you additional MPC software auths, not sure if the touch will give you MPC 2 our MPC 1 though

So, are you saying that these software authorizations are tied to a particular Touch? Or, are the available authorizations in a pool tied to my account that either Touch could use?

Sorry about all of these questions, but I couldn't find an explanation of this anywhere.

You have a touch already right? What version of the MPC software are you running? And I take it the mpc touch you are buying is not new? Is it sold with an MPC 2 licence?

Anyway as I said, if your copy of the MPC software is authorized then the hardware used shouldn't matter. I believe 1.9 might initially pop up with a notice that hardware has changed but won't stop you using it, but MPC 2 is 100% tied into the ilok auth code so ilok won't care about the hardware.

I am running software version 2.4, but it came with version 1.9 when I purchased it. I have a separate iLok code for 1.9 and any 2.x versions. So, it sounds like it doesn't matter to me if the used Touch I buy has additional installs or not, it will be usable with the 2.x ilok code I have. Correct?

Yes it will be fine, as I said in my first response!

Thanks, man. I appreciate you help . . . and patience. :^)

In case this helps anyone, moving an iLok license from a seller to your account is easy, but it is NOT forgiving. The person selling or giving you the licenses has all of the control, so if they screw it up, you're out of luck and (according to iLok) it can't be fixed. There are two things that must be done correctly by the seller:

1) They must deactivate any of the installs they have been using to their account. For example, if there are two installs, they must see 0 of 2 installed. If they don't do this, I believe they will be lost.
2) To actually move the license, they must enter your EXACT user account name (they do not need your password). If this is done incorrectly, and somebody else has that account user name, they will get the license and you can't get it back. I don't know what will happen if the seller tries to send it to a non-existent account.

If you watch your iLok account while the transfer is occurring, you will actually see it arrive. One thing that surprised me was that it will arrive in your account already authorized. If you select the newly arrived License in the list, and open Show Details, you will see the authorization number.

The next step is to add the new device's serial number to your Akai account. This went smoothly, but there is one thing that should be mentioned here: Although the Authorization number for the transferred license was visible in the iLok manager, you will not see it in your Akai account. You will see a box next to it labelled "GET ACTIVATION CODE". If you click on that, you will see "THERE IS NO SERIAL CODE LEFT, OR SERIAL CODE IS NOT FOUND". This is OK because (as I mentioned above) it arrived authorized in your account, but you may want to write the one you see in your iLok account down somewhere because (unlike other ones in your Akai account) you can't log on and see what it is. However, you will see "NEW: MPC 2.10 (MPC Touch)" in the list of things with a new authorization code. So, I believe I also received a new authorization code, as well. I don't want to try it out as I don't know what it will do and don't want to create a problem.

Good luck.