Make your own Ringtones

Is it just me, or does anyone else wonder why a complete MP3 file costs 99 cents, but the 15-to-30-second ringtone clipped out of the middle of it costs $1.99 or more?

My advice is don’t buy ringtones. Period. Ever. That doesn’t mean you can’t have ringtones – just don’t buy them. You can make your own easily, and (if you have a method of connecting your phone to your PC or Mac, like Bluetooth or a USB cable) upload them straight to the phone (bypassing the extra charge for emailing them to your phone). You will need some free software tools, and a CD or MP3 or AAC file of the audio you want to make into a ringtone.

Here’s how:

  1. Use Audacity to make MP3 ringtones:  Follow the Mr. Bass guide
  2. or use Easy Ringtone Editor for Windows
  3. or Chop Shop for OSX
  4. and Pazera Converter Suite if you need iPhone-type files.

Note that the Pazera Suite is good for video conversion, too; I use it to make MP4 videos out of my AVI videos so I can watch them on my Roku box using MyMedia.

Once you’ve created your ringtone(s) use BitPim to get it onto your phone. This can be a fairly time-intensive part of the project, so if you plan to make several ringtones, I would make one, upload it to the phone to make sure the settings are right, then make all the rest and upload them all at once. So far I have about 97 custom ringtones on my LG VX8350R.

Yes, it really is that simple.

By icesnake

Icesnake, known to Law Enforcement the world over as Rich Tietjens, retired from the US Army in 1992 and has spent the intervening years attempting to die with the most gadgets, and thus, win. To this end, he has written software both as a freelance programmer and a paid consultant, tested network products and built driver disks for Intel, operated a Web hosting service for ten years, built more personal computers than any sane man would ever want, collected seven cats, and finally settled down in Oregon as the Information Technology Training Coordinator (fancy talk for "help desk and PC tech") for a small manufacturing firm. Rich started playing Dungeons and Dragons in 1976 and has never given up the RPG habit, progressing through Diablo, Everquest, Asheron's Call, Diablo 2, and World of Warcraft. Most evenings you can find him on Trollbane-US playing his mage, Icesnake - who is an Engineer and is trying to collect all the cool gadgets in Greater Azeroth... And so it goes.

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