I think the question we all have to ask ourselves is ‘how bad do I want my fingers to play dance dance revolution’
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Not sure what you mean by DJ, or imposter? But, yeah. Sounds like you are very excited about the new Push. You should grab that shiz! Looks fun. But, these hang-ups about DJ’s being imposters and people who use Octatracks are snobs? I would suggest you remove yourself from the internet for a bit. You may be caught in a doom loop.
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I don’t think Push 3 is covering all OT functions, and certainly OT is not covering anywhere near all Push 3 options, going off topic the Akai Force has common ground with both so you might want to look at that.
The OT main strength is scenes and realtime sampling/mangling, on that front it is fairly unique, if realtime multiple input sampling and the mixer/fx box are not features you need then Push 3 or Force might fit the bill.
One other thing to consider is OT midi clock/sampling precision, these computer in a box devices don’t seem that strong in this regard, currently and AFAIK.
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I have allways a small iritation because of the time it costs to load or save a project on OT. But i can live with it. Then the Push 3 loading time…. In that time i can build a new pattern on the OT.
I think that from what I read on the Push 3 it seems really nice, but not for me, I don’t like Ableton and it seems that is a big aspect of Push (obviously) but also it seems currently to have too many limitations standalone, like no arrangement editing, limited modulation mapping, no non Ableton plug in support etc. I think if I was an Ableton user though I’d still give getting it serious consideration, even despite the limitations.
Personally I think of Push as a studio tool you can use in a live setting, and octatrack as a live tool you can use in a studio setting.
I found it less intuitive and partially cumbersome to adapt each to their less natural setting (I.e. octatrack for studio, push for live performance.)
Could just be me though…
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I can only speak for my personal usage, but if/when they sort out the speed issue on the P3 I’m going to swap out my Octatrack for it. The reason for this is that I mainly just use my OT as an end of chain effects/mangling/etc instrument and not as much for sampling. Between the A4 and AR, I already have more than enough going on and I can never really find a use outside of the aforementioned one for the OT.
I currently have a Push 2 and I find the sampling workflow, as well as everything else really, just makes more sense to me on it and is much quicker. I feel the P3 with my A4 and AR would be an absolute powerhouse of a combo and Id be able to do what I want much quicker than I do with the OT. I’d be able to mould the P3 into whatever I need it to be, add whatever effects I need, M4L devices, etc etc etc and transport everything over much quicker and easier for me than the OT.
YMMV of course but just my 2 cents on my specific use case. Would I miss the OT? Yes, from a sentimental perspective and the crossfader. But if I’m being brutally honest with myself workflow wise the push would be a huge improvement.
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I’ve never owned a OT but I’ve watched a ton of videos on OT scenes and the crossfader. Couldn’t you build a much more powerful crossfader/scene system with P3? Plug in a Launch Control XL, turn it sideways, you have 8 crossfaders.
I’m sure I’m missing something.
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You can, but the Octatrack is way more immediate. Press a scene button, twist a knob, and you’re done. Ableton is more powerful. Way more. But everything takes longer.
There are some max devices that help, but the only software I have found that comes close to the Octatrack in terms of speed is Drambo for the iPad.
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Seems like a good opportunity to develop a M4L device that makes things quicker on the Push 3. The OT immediacy does seem unbeatable, I’m just not in a position to climb that steep mountain right now.
M4L devices that do this kind of thing have existed for a while (eg. Octascenes version 1.01 by chapelierfou on maxforlive.com) but the main obstacle at the moment is Push Standalone doesn’t have the ability to do Max mappings, which you kinda need to do to select what’s in your scenes. Once that’s in place, sure, though no control on the Push 3 is physically as satisfying as the Octatrack crossfader, so you’d probably want to plug something into the Push and midi map it to that control.
But generally, Push standalone is on the cusp of being a crazy infinite modulation powerhouse but just needs some Max functionality built into it. Well I say built into it, but this suggests it’s already there but not widely known/used yet, so it might just be about this becoming common knowledge in the community (and M4L devs being kind enough to update their devices to work this way).
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If Ableton irons out the bugs and a couple of quality of life workflow things + they get all their Max devices working on the P3, not much (IMO) will come close to the Push.
All that feels like 3 to 6 months away…
Hehe the OT is honestly not that hard to learn and everything makes a lot more sense once you have one in front of you. It took me just a good few hours before I was mangling samples, live looping stuff and transitioning to other parts or patterns (thanks to Ezbot’s videos <3). It’s a quick & immediate workflow that will take you to unexpected places. I don’t know any m4l device that offers something similar, but I’m very curious to see what will become possible on the push 3 in a few months from now 
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If and when Fors Opal makes it to the P3…whoa…
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Someone earlier said get a Novation Launch Control XL, turn it sideways, bammm, 8 crossfaders for 8 scenes 
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Why don’t you make it?
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I’m shy 
Need a push?
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