A Guide to Making Free Ringtones (without jailbreaking) - iPhone 3G

wildonrio · 08-13-2008, 06:35 PM

I realize that this trick has already been discussed many times over, but I don't think anyone has really ever mapped out a step-by-step guide with screen shots like this.

What you need:

Either access to the Internet or an audio editor. (For this guide, I use Goldwave.*)
iTunes

*Note: Goldwave is not free, but their trial package lets you use all the functions as much as you like. After a while it will start to bother you to buy it, but you don't ever have to.

Steps:

STEP 1. Find an mp3 file of a song you want to make into a ringtone. If you don't know where the song is on your hard drive but you know it's in iTunes, just right click on the song in iTunes and choose Show in Windows Explorer and a window will pop-up showing the file.

1. Show in Windows Explorer.jpg

STEP 2. You now have two options:

Option A: If you have the Internet you can go an extremely easy route by going to the website www.makeownringtone.com. (You will also be able to skip steps 3-7, so this is your best option). Once at the website, you simply click Upload and then locate the mp3 file of your choosing. Select under 30 seconds of your favorite clip and then make sure to select the following options:

File Format: M4R
Download: to computer

Here are some recommendations to make your ringtone sound better:

Normalize - checked
Fade - checked. Select about half a second for the Beginning and about a second for the End.

makeownringtone.JPG

Finally, click MAKE A RINGTONE and download it to your computer.

*** NOW SKIP TO STEP 9 BELOW (You don't have to do Steps 3 - 7) ***

Option B: If the www.makeownringtone.com website is down, or you'd just rather go the more professional route, then go ahead and open up Goldwave. Now, you can either drag and drop the mp3 file into Goldwave, or you can choose Open and then locate the file. Once the file is loaded, your goal is to find 30 seconds of the song that you want as the ringtone. Drag the ends of the file until under 30 seconds of the song is selected. Once you have finalized the 30 seconds you want, go ahead and hit Trim at the top of the window to trim it down. (If you need to be more precise, you can hit the In button on the top to zoom in to a section of the song.)

2. Select 30 seconds.jpg

STEP 3. Now to make it sound nice with some fade-ins and fade-outs. If the 30 seconds is in the middle of the song somewhere, you will most likely want it to fade-in so it's not such an abrupt beginning. Select just the first second or so of the clip, and then hit the Fade In button at the top. Next, select the last second or so and hit the Fade Out button (as shown in the picture below).

3. Fade-out the end.jpg

STEP 4. Now select the whole clip and push play just to make sure it sounds nice. If you like it, go ahead and go to File> Save As... and save it to a location of your choosing as an mp3 file. (If Goldwave gives you a warning that no encoder was found, asking if you'd like to see the website for more info, just say No, the encoder will work fine! I don't understand why they show this error.)

STEP 5. Import this file you just made into iTunes by either dragging and dropping it into iTunes or choosing the File> Add File to Library... feature in iTunes. Once it shows up in your library, right click it and choose Convert Selection to AAC.

4. Convert Selection to AAC.jpg

(If you don't see this option, go to File> Preferences> Advanced> Importing> Import Using and then choose AAC Encoder.)

STEP 6. Once it's converted, a new 30 second file with the same name should show up under the first one and it should start playing right away. Right click on the FIRST one (the one that isn't playing) and say Delete. This was your mp3 file that you don't need anymore. If iTunes asks if you would like to move it to the recycle bin, say Yes.

Continued in next post...

wildonrio · 08-13-2008, 06:46 PM

STEP 7. Now you want to right click on the other 30 second file you didn't delete and say Show in Windows Explorer. A window will pop up showing the file with the extension .m4a. This is bad. Right click on the file and say Rename, and change the ending from .m4a to .m4r. Leave this window open since we will be dragging the file to iTunes in a second!

6. Rename filetype.jpg

(If you don't see the extension of the file, hit ALT, then go to Tools> Folder Options> View and uncheck Hide extensions for known file types.)

STEP 8. Go back to iTunes, right click, and Delete the other 30 second file also. If it asks if you also want to move it to the recycle bin, say No.

7. Delete aac file.jpg

STEP 9. Now take the .m4r file and drag it into your iTunes library.

8. Copy ringtone to iTunes Library.jpg

STEP 10. Now if you go to the Ringtones section of your Library, you should see your new ringtone ready to go! Play it to make sure everything works ok.