For instance, Live can't really 'get inside' MPC Essentials, so you can't process individual pads in the plugin with Live's effects you can only process the entire plugin with them, that is, every sample together. Personally, I don't see the real benefit of using MPC Essentials as a plugin unless you like that MPC-style sequencing workflow, or have the MPC Element and want to take advantage of all its capabilities.

When loaded as a plugin in this way, MPC Essentials is basically a self-contained beat machine, where you can load drums (or other samples) onto pads and sequence entire patterns all within a single track in Live. NZ Rockshop have New Zealands widest range of Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Ukuleles, Basses, Drums, Keyboards, Pianos, Recording Equipment, DJ Gear. However, in addition to being a standalone DAW, MPC Essentials can also be loaded as a plugin inside other DAWs like Ableton, with largely the same functionality as the standalone MPC Essentials this is probably one reason you were confused whether it is or isn't a DAW. But like Live 9 Lite is to Live 9 Suite, it lacks a lot of its big brother's functionality. MPC Essentials is a stripped down version of Akai's MPC Software suite, so in that respect it is a DAW you can load multiple samples, sequence them, and process them individually with native effects.

How to use mpc essentials