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:
- Use Audacity to make MP3 ringtones: Follow the Mr. Bass guide
- or use Easy Ringtone Editor for Windows
- or Chop Shop for OSX
- 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.