Tones

This page is kind of a relic at this point. But it’s still fun to have up. And I STILL use some of these ringtones, but now, in 2020, I’m using an iphone. The process of adding a custom ringtone on an iPhone is super crappy (if you don’t have iTunes, which I don’t). It involves importing a song to the Garageband app on your phone, then saving that as a new track. Anyway…

Oh hey.

For months and months I’ve been pointing out to anyone whose phone is ringing that most ringtones aren’t great. I say, “Listen for yourself if you don’t believe me!” And then, blown away, they respond, “Hold on, I’m on the phone.” Plus, what if musical ringtones are becoming passe? I don’t know!

There’s so much that can be done with the medium. And so anyway I’ve been recording things and then editing them, and then saving them. And here they are. All for free.

Adding tones to your phone, there are two main ways to do it:

One is to direct your web-enabled phone to the url of the file, and then download it. More?

The second is to find a file you like, download it to your computer’s desktop, and then connect your computer to your phone via bluetooth or via usb/firewire.
And then, using the bluetooth connection, send the file to the phone. (Read more about bluetooth here.)

Then save the file as your ring.

More.

Most of these files are mp3. Many phones use mp3’s for their ringtone format. But some phones, like my Samsung T509, use a proprietary format: mmf. So I try to save and then provide the files in that format also. mmf are fairly low frequency, and mono. My (new) phone is the G1 G2 Android phone, and it rules. mp3 is the way to go. If you don’t know what format your phone prefers, you can just go to the screen on your phone that shows the ringtones, because the file names will usually end with the format extension (such as “ringaling.mp3”). Or you could maybe try this site.

Since they are simply short mp3 files, that means they are short and simple files. You can make them, too. Personally, I enjoy carrying around an Edirol R-09HR digital field recorder, and then recording the various neat sounds I hear. Then I plop them into various programs, such as Audacity, WSD, Argeiphontes Lyre, Audion, and sometimes Garageband. Sometimes I use my analog synthesizer. Read my announcement post for some more info.

I encourage every one who is any one to try and make their own! Try to come up with a nice sound that you never imagined could be a ringtone! I also encourage you to email your creation to me. And if you’d like I’ll put it up on this webpage, properly credited, and under the creative common license that’s listed in the footer.

Typing of that, these are all licensed under a creative commons license that grants users permission to share the files and to edit them however they please, So go ahead and warp them to your liking. But the license restricts users from making money off them. The license also has a note about attribution. So, as author, here are my attribution instructions: if you like the file, then feel free to tell others where you got it.

Even more.

My favorite site for musical ringtones (mostly midi format): VGMusic.com.

Tutorial plus editing tips.

I’m still learning how to optimize tones for phones. I’m finding this project to be a good way to become more familiar with the music editing programs.