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MooCowMusic's Band was the first music-making application for Apple's iPhone and it was, and still is, very capable of making music. But with gear manufacturers, bedroom inventors and just plain-crazy people falling over themselves to provide alternatives, the market is saturated.

Cutting the killer from the filler, we've assembled the iPhone music-making apps, accessories and er… theories, we couldn't live without in 2008, and expect great things from in 2009. This is MusicRadar's 7 simple steps to iPhone music-making enlightenment…

1. Compose

Let's start with something simple: chop up some audio, group the separate files into one playlist and hit random play. Remember, for every 100 or so unlistenable tracks this process will produce you'll get one equally-terrible noise which someone will post online.

2. Hit record

There are a couple of excellent recording options here: 1) download the iProRecorder application, point, click and record. It only costs $0.99 and the playback features are ideal for transcribing. Or, 2) try Sonoma Wire Works' CD-quality FourTrack recorder, which, does exactly what it says on the tin. Four tracks of unlimited length (depending on your available memory, of course) easily transferred to your favourite DAW.

3. Produce yourself

Sometimes you just want an app that does it all: Intua Beatmaker enables the production of an entire track from start to finish. Tapping your fingers navigates 16 MPC-style pads for triggering, sounds, a sample editor, step and song sequencer, and even a live performance set-up (see point 6 for more live options). There are also two effects channels with internal effects and live pattern recording. See? Everything.