Make Your Own Ringtone

Face it, the ringtones on your phone are boring. Who wants to hear the same three note chime over and over again? Add some jazz to your phone (or some rock, or some hip-hop, or some classical...) and set yourself apart. Follow this guide to learn how to give your phone its own distinctive sound.

Steps

Using an Online Service

1. Visit an online ringtone creator. There are tons of websites that will allow you to upload a music file and then select what portion of that file you want to turn into your ringtone. And the best part is they're all free! Search for a current popular option online using keywords like "free ringtone creator" or "free ringtone maker," and you'll see a lot of results.
2. Upload the song that you want to create the ringtone from. You can choose the file from anywhere on your computer, and some services allow you to link to files in cloud storage. Most services accept all the major formats, including:
   • MP3
   • AAC
   • M4A
   • WAV
   • WMA
3. Set the ringtone segment. Once the file has been uploaded, you’ll be able to designate which section of the song you’d like to use as a ringtone. Most phones support ringtones up to 30 seconds long.
4. Choose your bitrate. Most ringtone makers will default to a lower bitrate than a standard audio file, because the speaker on a phone is generally lower quality than headphones or stereo speakers. This allows the file to be smaller in size while still being a decent quality.
   • Most defaults are 96 kbps, you can increase this if you’d like. 320 kbps is CD-quality.
5. Choose your format. iPhone ringtones need to be in the M4R format, while almost all other phones support MP3 files.
6. Decide how you want to receive a file. Most services offer a choice between downloading the file to your computer, receiving the file via email, or having the file pushed directly to your phone.
7. Put the file on your phone. If you had the file delivered directly to your phone, then you should be able to select the ringtone in your ringtone menu. If you downloaded it to your computer, you will need to place it in the right directory on your phone:
   • For iPhone, place the M4R file in the Ringtones library in iTunes. Sync the library to your phone and your ringtone will be added to your ringtone list.
   • For Android, connect your phone to your computer. Open the phone’s drive and navigate to the “media” folder. Open the “audio” folder, or create one if it does not exist. Finally, open the “ringtones” folder or create one. Place the audio file in the “ringtones” folder.

Using an App

1. Download the app of your choice. Both iOS and Android have a large selection of ringtone creation apps available for both free and for purchase from their respective stores. Read the user reviews to determine which is the best for you. Two of the best free apps are:
   • Create Ringtones! – iOS
   • Ringtone Maker – Android
2. Load the song in the app. The method varies from app to app, but generally you can load any song that is stored on your phone. These apps typically support all major file formats.
3. Set your ringtone segment. Once you have the song loaded, you will be able to set the start point and end point for the ringtone. You may have options to add effects such as fade in and fade out. Make sure that the start and end points don't abruptly start or stop, so that your ringtone sounds as good as possible.
4. Save the new ringtone to your phone. Android apps will automatically place the ringtone in the correct folder on your phone. Simply click the Save or Set button and your ringtone will be added.
   • For iOS, you will need to connect your phone to your computer and boot up iTunes. The ringtone file will appear in the File Sharing section of the Apps tab. Save the file to your computer, and then drag it back into the Ringtones library in iTunes. Sync your phone again and your ringtone will be available to use.

Using iTunes

1. Open iTunes. The example will focus on how to use part of a song to make a ringtone, but you can use any audio file to do it. Import it into iTunes by right-clicking the file and selecting "Open with... iTunes."
2. Select the file you want to use for your ringtone. You can choose any song that is in your library. Play the song and be prepared to take notes on when you want the ringtone to start and stop. iPhones support ringtones up to 30 seconds long.
   • Make note of the minute and second that you want the ringtone to start as well as stop.
3. Change the Start Time and Stop Time. Right-click on the file and select Get Info. Choose the Options tab. You can enter in new values for Start Time and Stop Time. Select the portion you want (keeping a colon between minutes and seconds), and click OK.
4. Separate this new snippet from the original file. To do so, right-click the song again and select Create AAC version. You should now have two copies of the song, but with different lengths. The shorter one will be your ringtone.
   • After you've created the AAC version, click on the original song, select Get Info, and go back to the options screen. Reset the file to play the whole song by setting Start Time to 0 and unchecking End Time.
5. Right-click the ringtone file and select View in Finder (or Show in Windows Explorer). A new window containing both your ringtone file and the original should pop up.
6. Change the ringtone to the correct format. If you are using an iPhone, the ringtone will need to be in M4R format. Right-click and select Rename (Windows) or hold down Shift and click it (Mac). Simply change the "a" (for audio) at the end to an "r" (for ringtone).
   • On a Mac, when the dialog box pops up asking if you're sure, click "Use .m4r".
   • On a PC, when the dialog box pops up asking if you're sure, click "Yes" to rename the file.
7. Delete the AAC version of the file from iTunes. Go back to iTunes, and delete the shorter file of the song. Don't delete the original. When the dialog box pops up, click "Keep File."
   • On a PC, deleting the original is acceptable. It will not remove the .m4r file from your computer.
8. Put the M4R file back into iTunes. Go back to the Finder or Windows Explorer window and drag the M4R file into the Ringtones library in iTunes. This is necessary for iPhones.
   • Once the file has been placed in the Ringtones library, you can sync your phone to add it to your list of available ringtones.

Using Audacity

1. Download Audacity. Audacity is an open source audio editing program that is available to download for free directly from the developers. You will be using it to isolate the segment of the song that you want to turn into a ringtone. It's a powerful program, and chances are you'll find lots more uses for it beyond creating ringtones.
2. Download LAME. While it may sound like a bummer, this software actually allows Audacity to export files in the MP3 format. LAME is available for free from the developer.
3. Choose a song that you would like to use as a ringtone. In order to edit it in Audacity, it will need to be in MP3 format. If it is not MP3 format, you can convert it using a variety of free online music converters. Simply upload the file and select MP3 as the output format.
4. Open the file in Audacity. When the MP3 loads, you will see the waveform graph of the audio. You can press the Play button to listen to the song, and the marker will show where in the song you are.
5. Highlight the portion that you want to turn into a ringtone. Use your mouse to highlight the segment that you want to convert. You can press the Play button to ensure that the start and end sound good and don’t cut off too abruptly.
   • Keep your segment under 30 seconds, or certain phones may not support it.
6. Export the segment. Once you are satisfied with your selection, click File and then click “Export Selection”. Choose MP3 as the format and give the file a name. You will need to load the LAME file that you downloaded earlier.
7. Put the ringtone on your phone. For Android, connect the phone to your computer via USB and place the ringtone in the /media/audio/ringtones/ folder. For iPhones, adding the file is a multi-step process:
   • First, add the clip to your iTunes library. Right-click on it and select “Create AAC version”. This is will create a new file with the M4A extension.
   • Right-click on the new file and select View in Finder or Show in Windows Explorer. This will open the folder that contains the file. Rename the file so that it has the M4R extension instead of M4A.
   • Drag the newly-renamed file back into iTunes, this time into your Ringtones library. The file will be added to your iPhone the next time that you sync.

Tips

• Make sure the ringtone is 30 seconds or less.
• This is legal as long as you don't distribute the music to others.

Related Articles

• Convert Protected Audio Into a Plain MP3
• Make iPhone Ringtones on a Mac Using iTunes
• Make a Bell Ringtone Using Audacity
• Make Your Own MP3 Ringtones for the Kyocera Slider Remix
• Make Your Own Ringtones for Verizon Phones
• Make Your Own Android Ringtones

Sources and Citations

See also

• Make Ringtones for the iPhone
• Send Pictures from Your Digital Camera to Your Camera Phone
• Create and Upload a Ringtone
• Transfer Images from Computer to Mobile Phone
• Get a Free Ringtone
• Send Ringtones to Your Cell Phone Through Email
• Download Videos, Music, Games, Software for your Mobile Phone
• Use Mobile Spy to Spy on a Mobile Phone
• Send Free and Legal Ringtones to Your Straight Talk Phone
• Get Free Ringtones at Zedge.com

Read more ...

What links here

• Add Ringtones to an Android Phone
• Create and Upload a Ringtone
• Make Your Own Android Ringtones