Ins & outs

WE’RE ALL EARS

Hearing loss is something that all musicians fear, but scientists at Indiana University think that, in the future, it might be possible to reverse it by rebuilding parts of the inner ear using stem cells. Don’t rely on it just yet, though: this kind of ‘cure’ could be years off.

ABLETEACH

Even we have to admit that Ableton’s new interactive learning website is pretty slick. It shows you howh a track is put together and also touchest on a range of music theory concepts. You can even export parts you create for use in Live. Find it at learningmusic.ableton.com

BLADE OF GLORY?

Last month saw the release of the first trailer for Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic. We’re especially keen to find out if composer Jóhann Jóhannsson can produce a soundtrack to compare to Vangelis’s iconic synth-infused score for the original movie.

RIP ROBERT MILES

DJ/producer Robert Miles’ time in the spotlight may have been pretty brief, but there aren’t many people in dance music history who’ve had a hit as big as Children, which was everywhere in the mid-90s, and hugely influential.

THE END OF MP3?

As its patent expires, Fraunhofer Institute’s decision to end certain MP3-related licence programs has had some thinking that the format is dead, but now that it’s free to incorporate MP3 encoding into music software, maybe we’ll see an open-source renaissance.

KICKED OUT

You can imagine how excited we were when we saw the Mi Adidas Neely Air | Roland TR-808: Disturb the Peace sneakers, which house a fully working drum machine. The problem, though, is simple: these are concept kicks, and we can’t buy them.