The greatest DJ brand Serato and the king of the synth world Roland introduced us to what could happen out of their collaboration – and now we get 2 in 1: a drum machine and a DJ controller in a beast called DJ-808.

The release appeared to be in the honor of Roland 909 anniversary – well, more of a tribute day. DJ-808 looks as a typical 4-channel Serato controller with the only - and actually the key – difference: there’s a TR-S drum machine with a sequencer hidden - the construction of the iconic TR-808. It incorporates the program emulation of popular Roland machines (808, 909, 606 and 707). The instrument allows creating beat right off and syncing the rhythm with Serato software. There’s also the possibility to control tuning, decay as well as to switch patterns – as the recent Roland TR-8 model does.

2 USB ports will let the owners of TB-3 and System-1 integrate it with Roland AIRA. There are no other controllers sporting sequencer onboard on the market today. It features all the qualities a DJ got used to: velocity sensitive pads, wheels and effects, including the Voice Transformer (VT) based on the AIRA VT-3.

DJ-808 hasn’t got its price announced yet.