The vehicle, like an XDJ doesn’t matter.
It’s all about the production quality.
Sound coming from an OT won’t compete with a professional mixed and mastered MP3
But if you add the right hardware (a limiter) and some clever mixing to the OT, you’ll get there.
Everytime I have played live I have polished the samples and stems in a DAW as seemed fit. Then I put it back in OT/AR. Some good pedal FX for other synths/vocal/guitar/rhodes and I’m good to go.
But I mean, if you want some modern ableton wizz-kid FX that can only be done abusing plugins and radical EQ:ing - not saying that’s bad, but many modern sounds come from experimenting with the capabilites of plug-ins! I’m all for that, although I mostly never like the resulst lol - then by all means, just do it in Bitwig or your DAW of choice and load it in your sampler. That’s the beauty of a sampler, right? And the 96k sample rate? Don’t bother, it will sound just fine in OT/DT’s internal 44/48. But one must acknowledge the work behind a finished song. Great writing, mixing and mastering is what makes the difference.
Personal preference, I like the overall sound and fine control of live synthesis and sequencing in electronic music.
I am thinking about porting my sounds from Bitwig over to my Octatrack for mangling the audio there but I just love sampling live hardware. Though, I love Bitwig too.
Has anyone heard of any big names playing a set with an Octatrack as the main machine? Or has anyone heard of someone getting paid top or as close to top dollar to perform a show with the black boxes of happiness? Lookin’ for some links. I know Thom Yorke was featured recently and he owns like all the boxes, but I don’t know if he has used them live? I would love to know!
A bit older but pretty sure Nine inch nails pulls top-ish dollar
Tons of artists using Elektron on stage.
Thom Yorke, live for sure: https://equipboard.com/pros/thom-yorke/elektron-analog-rytm
https://thekingofgear.com/post/46989808768/atoms-for-peace-dj-setup-from-top-left-to
Surgeon: https://equipboard.com/pros/surgeon/elektron-octatrack-dps1-sampler
SHXCXCHCXSH rock several Elektron units. Not sure if OT is in it.
Speedy J : https://equipboard.com/pros/speedy-j
Frank Bretschneider: https://groove.de/2018/03/29/studiobericht-frank-bretschneider/
See also here Techno Artists with Elektron products
And here https://www.elektronauts.com/talk
Nice condescension there. The digitakt is not a good piece of equipment for DJing. For playing stuff you made it in the digitakt, it’s awesome.
The Digitakt is perhaps my favorite instrument second to my guitars. Ya, I wouldn’t “DJ” with it, I would synthesize a song. I am sure you could DJ with it though if that was your prerogative
I love your honest opinion. Seems you’re saying NO, me and my Octatrack vs them and their XDJ is a losing battle in terms of surviving the mainstream and reaching a place where you/we are the “rock star.” Can an album written/performed on my Elektron boxes hit a bazillion spotify plays and sell out a large venue? No matter what I won’t give up on the idea that it can but I am curious more about what my peers think when they are writing a hit song on their Analog 4 and Digitakt or Rytm and Digitone, whatever your weapons of choice are. Are we imagining a place where we are professional performing musicians or is that not important/out of reach?
How is there even a debate? Making music is one thing. Playing other peoples recordings is another thing. Completey different. You cant compare them at all.
If the question is, can elektron gear sound as good as mastered recordings? The answer is maybe.
Does a band playing live sound as good as their recordings? The answer is… maybe.
Actually it probably will, MP3s on big sound systems always sound bloody horrible. Wavs sound better. They just do. So in your example, the octatrack would sound better, since the wav format is significantly higher quality sound.
MP3 is garbage, do not use it.
When the aesthetic preference of the room or venue is handmade/raw/live, then it’s the hyper-polished material that will sound out of place. It’s all relative, right? Personally, I don’t think it’s an Elektron vs everything else issue. There is no single piece of hardware, from any manufacturer, that sounds like a mastered daw-produced track right out of the box. The slick sound you are describing does not come from an improvised live performance on a bunch of hardware boxes. I agree with the posters who have said you’ll need to work in a daw at some point to get that sound. But to me that’s beside the point. We don’t get these machines to sound like big festival headliners on cdjs. We get them to enjoy what they do best - including all the rawness, mistakes and lo-fi moments that come with them. My philosophy is that if you want that slick sound, there’s nothing stopping you from tracking your Elektrons into a daw and working from there. But if you just want to play these machines live, play them to an audience that appreciates what it is you’re doing!
Why not set up your machines to play through a DAW and put a mastering chain on the master channel? That way you can play live and have it sound good…
I’m assuming when you say “DJ with Elektron gear” you mean, “play live”?
I think with the right processing at the end of the chain theres no reason why an Elektron set couldn’t match up with a DJ playing mastered tracks.
I’ve been using AH and RNC to thicken and control my Rytm/modular setup and have had many compliments on the clarity and dynamic range of my sets.
That’s literally exactly what is at the end of my chain. 
What is RNC?
FMR Really Nice Compressor
I disagree! beatmtching with any elektron box is a piece of cake. try it sometimes, you might be pleasantly surprised 
As for this thread, I’ve been bored to tears by “karaoke gigs” (DJ presses play and vocalist does their thing on top), and have also seen killer OT performances. Its not so much about what you use, its more about everything else (having the right music for the event and time, having the right attitude, doing right things on the stage, and on and on…)
All CDJs dont even play back 24 bit audio masters… Surely an OT can sound just as good as a CDJ?
Also, you defined “competing against polished DAW music”… why compete? Do your own thing man! I’ve seen killer gigs played with the crummiest gears, just as meaningful as “overproduced diatonic sh17 from a fckn DAW” 
Honestly, I have trouble seeing how you could reproduce those huge and multi layered EDM rises and drops, or stuff like Skrillex growl basslines with sounds that change every step (I know there are p locks, but this is something else) that are all super produced and then mixed and mastered by a team of people with several pass of plugins and high end equipment in rooms designed to explore and correct every little aspect of the sounds.
Except playing back the files on the OT maybe.
But on another hand, that’s not the point of playing live with elektron stuff, you can play live with the sounds and pattern in a way a DJ can’t and mix and mash your material in a totally different fashion, taking a drum part from one of your song and play the melodies of another one, and creating a new bassline on the spot.
TL;DR: I don’t think you can (depending on the music you intend to play) but I don’t think that’s the point of the machines either
No condescension intended, we just disagree.