Hey guys really sorry for the downtime, thanks to all who contacted me to let me know, unfortunately I was out of email contact and didn't see the issues until now. Damn distracting real life! In anycase we're all set once more. Stay tuned for some happier news...

Hey everyone, it's so great to see (and hear) the home studio community continuing to add to the treasure trove of original music and musical advice here at maketunes. It's all of you taking part in our community who make it what it is - the multitudes of musicians honing their art, and inspiring others through their music and discussion, and the many people taking it all in over the years.

There are now over 13,000 original tunes here at maketunes which you've created and uploaded - that's just awesome! Keep creating and learning, they're wonderful aspects of life!

This looks interesting for users of the iPad, a 48 track recording app - which I believe is a first for a tablet. Personally I think I'd prefer to stick with a computer based DAW, but I'm sure some people out there will enjoy checking this out.

A Waterphone is a very interesting instrument - the range of eerie sounds that you can get out of this thing is just awesome! Perfect for horror movies and creating boatloads of atmosphere.

In a much anticipated followup, musician and producer Kutiman has put out another mashup of various Youtube musician clips - combining them into an original piece of music. I think personally I preferred his previous project thru-you, but it's still interesting to see all these home musicians "collaborating" on a song like this.

Hey everyone, hope all is well for you guys.

As many of you likely saw reported in the news, Christchurch New Zealand where I live was recently devastated by a major earthquake, which has killed almost 200 people and destroyed much of the central city. I'm alright, as are most of our friends and family - but everybody knows somebody who has died, and most people have been effected in some way by this disaster. I've got to say it's been a pretty horrible experience all round. Our army still have the central city sealed off and around 1/3 of all buildings have either been destroyed or need to be demolished. The city will never be the same again.

A couple of weeks after our earthquake, the Japanese had their own disaster, compounded by the resulting tsunami, and the devastation is mind boggling. I hope they get through it as well as can be hoped.

Live life people, you never know what may happen!

Hey everyone, hope your 2010 has been a good year so far, both musically and otherwise! It's been a very busy year for me that's for sure.

One thing I've noticed recently is the dirty spammers taking an interest in our site, so I just wanted to let you all know that I'm working on getting that sorted now. I'll be removing all the spam I find, and introducing some better systems to help keep them away for good.

Rock on!

I think over the years most home musicians will have the urge to create something for their home studio, whether due to budget, or purely the creative tinkering that led us to music in the first place.

My own DIY home studio creation is limited mainly to home made monitor speaker stands, but I'm sure if I was into vocals I would whip together one of those DIY pop-shields I've seen some of you mentioning. I'm not sure I could go as far as building my own guitar - or even completely overhauling one from scratch, as I know some of you have done!

I'd love to hear about your DIY projects in the studio.

What would be one piece of DIY home studio advice you'd offer to someone starting out with a low budget?

I'd like to welcome MakeTunes latest site sponsor, Loopmasters for stepping up in support of our community of upcoming musicians. They're excited to be involved with our vibrant community

Loopmasters have a HUGE selection of quality loop and sample products in basically any musical genre you can think of, and available in all the major formats.

I'd urge you all to check out their site, and keep them in mind if you're considering getting some audio products to give you some new direction or inspiration!

Well it's here folks, the first MakeTunes Guitarist Competition! I know many of you are really looking forward to this one. I've lined up some great commercial VST effects software from Ohmforce as prizes too - I'm sure you guitarists can have some fun with the premium Distortion and Phaser VST effects we've got on offer!

Who can enter?
This is a competition for guitarists - you're free to put whatever else in your track that you like, but the track should clearly have you playing some type of real guitar in it! A focus on your great skills as a guitarist is likely to wow the judges most of all! Show us what you can do, and have fun with it!

What can you win?
Ohmforce have been kind enough to donate almost US$700 worth of their great VST effects products (they also do VST instruments, check their site for more info).

1st Place
The winner of this competition will receive:

• Ohmicide:Melohman (Distortion VST)
• Mobilohm (Phaser VST)
• Predatohm (Distortion VST)

2nd Place
Runnerup in this competition will receive:

• Ohmicide:Melohman (Distortion VST)
• Mobilohm (Phaser VST)

3rd Place
3rd place in this competition will receive:

• Ohmicide:Melohman (Distortion VST)

How long do you have?
The guitarist competition will end on 20 August 2009.

What are the rules?

• Up to 2 songs can be entered into this competition.
• Must feature you playing a real guitar of some kind!
• Should be a song you recorded for this competition.

Who will be judging?
Matt
The Sole

How do you enter?
Just record your song, upload it to maketunes, and post a link to your track as a comment below...

Can't wait to hear what you lot can do with this competition, and no matter the outcome, I'm CERTAIN there will be loads of inspirational and entertaining musical creations as a result of this!