ringtones Archives

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 -- 7:30 p.m. -- at my desk

You know the ringtone ... the simple one that's at the end of just about every iPhone commercial? It's nowhere to be found, it seems, and you can't even buy it on iTunes.

But ... if you have a Mac and iLife 08, you have it. You'll find it at this path: /Library/Audio/Apple Loops/Apple/iLife Sound Effects/Work - Home/Cell Phone Ringing.aif

From there's it's actually pretty simple to get it into GarageBand (Mac only, again, sorry)

Thanks for calling.

Here's what you need to do it:
*GarageBand 4.1.1 or later
*iTunes 7.5 or later
*iPhone with software version 1.1.2 or later

To create a custom ringtone
1. Set up a cycle region that covers the area you wish to use in the GarageBand song. Note: This area must be 40 seconds or less in length. A cycle region means you select the arrow icon next to the play icon, and that indicates a repeated loop. Once you select the region, you will be presented with a yellow bar that you can manipulate in length. It is this bar that contains your 40 seconds of ringtone.

2. Once the cycle area has been set, choose Share > Send Ringtone to iTunes. It takes about 5 seconds to move to iTunes, and iTunes automatically comes up to show you its done. Then you sync and voila! That's it. It's easy and the way ringtones should have been since the beginning.

Troubleshooting
*If there are any issues creating or syncing ringtones, here are some suggestions:
*If the Share -- Send Ringtone to iTunes menu item in GarageBand is dimmed, make sure that you have iTunes 7.5 or later. If you have an earlier version, use Software Update to get the latest version.
*If you see an error message that indicates your ringtone was not copied when you synced your iPhone, make sure that the iPhone has software version 1.1.2 or later.

Friday, December 14, 2007 -- 11:49 a.m. -- on my couch

I'll admit that this one caught me by surprise. AND IT'S HUGE!!

Using the latest update to the latest version of Apple's Garageband software -- part of the iLife suite -- you can now create custom ringtones for your iPhone as long as they are 40 seconds or less in length.

Here are the directions directly from Apple, followed by my comments/suggestions.

With GarageBand 4.1.1 you can export your original song, your original audio recordings, or use Apple Loops and iLife jingles to create a custom ringtone for your iPhone. It will not work with copy-protected recordings of any kind.

Here's what you need to do it:
*GarageBand 4.1.1 or later
*iTunes 7.5 or later
*iPhone with software version 1.1.2 or later

To create a custom ringtone
1. Set up a cycle region that covers the area you wish to use in the GarageBand song. Note: This area must be 40 seconds or less in length. A cycle region means you select the arrow icon next to the play icon, and that indicates a repeated loop. Once you select the region, you will be presented with a yellow bar that you can manipulate in length. It is this bar that contains your 40 seconds of ringtone.
2. Once the cycle area has been set, choose Share > Send Ringtone to iTunes. It takes about 5 seconds to move to iTunes, and iTunes automatically comes up to show you its done. Then you sync and voila! That's it. It's easy and the way ringtones should have been since the beginning.

Troubleshooting
*If there are any issues creating or syncing ringtones, here are some suggestions:
*If the Share > Send Ringtone to iTunes menu item in GarageBand is dimmed, make sure that you have iTunes 7.5 or later. If you have an earlier version, use Software Update to get the latest version.
*If you see an error message that indicates your ringtone was not copied when you synced your iPhone, make sure that the iPhone has software version 1.1.2 or later.

But you may remember in some of the other 3rd party attempts at creating a ringtone that they also had to be 40 seconds or less in length. Apparently, this is some kind of limitation of the iPhone itself. But in those scenarios, whether or not the ringtone actually synched to your phone was hit or miss. From what I'm reading online, the Apple method works.

Sorry PC users, this one is just for Mac folks. There's no Garageband for Windows. I could use the rest of this space to talk about why you should switch to a Mac, but I'll save that for another time.

But ... because Windows users are left out, I would bet you 5 gajilliion bucks that a similar version is built right into iTunes 7.5 with the same functionality. And, if you want a real ringtone maker, well, you'll need garageband, but it's fantastic.

I put in 2 songs so far and it's just about perfect. If anyone needs more specific instructions, let me know and I'll do whatever I can to help you.

Has anyone tried this? Does it work? Please share your experiences.

Thanks for calling.

Sunday, November 25, 2007 -- 10:02 p.m. -- at my desk

This one comes from caller Lloyd in New Jersey and it's a good one.

If you're like me and you'd prefer to just use iTunes to populate your ringtones and you aren't really interested in the theme from Rocky IV, there's a way to get more traditional sound effects.

Go to the iTunes store and type in SOUND EFFECTS in the search box. You'll get 150 (to start) selections ranging from electronic phone sounds to a toilet flushing. Most, but not all, can be made into ringtones and many of them are iTunes plus files.

They still cost $.99 each plus $.99 for the ringtone, and some are pretty short -- like 4 seconds short in one instance. So obviously your mileage may vary if you are spending $1.98 on a few seconds of noise. But you get the idea. ... ringtones aren't really limited to just songs and that's a good thing, although I think Apple should offer these in package form ... say 5 for $2 or something a little more fair than the one price fits all.

Let me know what you find and if you take advantage of this.

And I think Lloyd, who is a teacher, will appreciate this next sentence: Thanks for sharing with the class.

Thanks for calling.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007 -- 6:08 p.m. -- at my desk

Sometimes I wonder if folks at Apple read this blog and then implement ideas.

I know I'm flattering myself, but I just wrote last night about the Top 10 list for ringtones and today Apple announces a special section of the iTunes store where they recommend ringtones based on music genre.

It's pretty impressive ... 20 categories including everythng from blues to children's music. And the number of choices varies depending on which category you select.

Now they aren't already widdled down to 30 seconds or less, so you still need to buy the song and create the ringtone, but that's half the fun, right?

You can find this page by going to the main screen at the iTunes store on your desktop or laptop. For now, you still need to sync them via iTunes as opposed to getting them directly from the iTunes wi-fi store.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks for calling.

Monday, November 5, 2007 -- 11:36 p.m. -- at my desk

I'll admit I haven't donwloaded too many ringtones since the functionality became available in September. I mean, it's OK, but I haven't felt the need to assign a ringtone to every single person I know.

That doesn't mean I won't be interested in doing that at some point, and one place I like to check is Apple's list of top ringtones. You can usually find it on the front page of the iTunes Store on the right side.

And, if you click on the little arrow on the top right portion of the list, you'll be taken to the classic music view within iTunes that shows the top 100 ringtones. So don't worry if you don't find something you like in the top 10.

I took a snapshot for you so you could see the top 10 as of this very minute.

Take On Me by A-Ha is No. 70. Now that's a ringtone.
.

Thanks for calling.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007 -- 11:32 p.m. -- at my desk

File this under I have no idea what Apple is doing or why I even have to write this.

Apparently, you can't autosync more than 8 ringtones at a time on your iPhone.

If you try to sync 9, only the first 8 go through.

Fear not, ringtone lovers ... there is a workaround and it comes directly from Apple.

I only have 3, so I'm OK so far. But it's weird.

Here's the deets:

iPhone: More than eight ringtones may not sync using iTunes

Symptom

When syncing ringtones created in iTunes, if more than eight ringtones are available, only the first eight ringtones listed will sync to the iPhone.

Solution

Follow these steps if you want to sync more than eight ringtones:

1. Select iPhone in the source list in iTunes.

2. Click the Summary tab and deselect "Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected.

3. Click the Ringtones tab and select "Selected Ringtones."

4. Select the ringtones you want to sync and then click Sync.

How many ringtones do you have? Anyone else run into this problem before reading the solution?

Thanks for calling.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007 -- 11:53 a.m. -- back and at my desk

Good grief, Steve Jobs.

Let me tell you about my first experience with the iTunes ringtone poor excuse for a store.

My wife loves Peanuts and Snoopy, so the Linus and Lucy theme by the Vince Guaraldi Trio seems like the only choice for her personal ringtone. Fine. Go to my library and check to see if that song has a little bell to indicate it can be made into a ringtone.

Nope. Darn. Ok, plan b.

But just for kicks, I go to the iTunes store and search for that song. And wouldn't you know, it comes up 3 times, on 3 different CDs. From the one CD, which I had, the ringtone wasn't available. But on another CD, it was. On the third, it wasn't.

As Charlie Brown would say, I can't stand it.

Same song, mind you, three different times, but only a version I don't have is eligible to be a ringtone.

In the end, I purchased the duplicate song and made a ringtone. So for $1.98, I got a ringtone for a song that I already had -- and it should have cost me just 99 cents.

This has nothing to do with money. This is about the simplicity and polish that Apple is known for and what I see with this ringtone store is something that I'd use on a PC. And that's bad. It looks like Apple rushed it out the door.

It lacks polish and pizazz. It's not hard to use -- I made two ringtones -- and maybe it will get better as we go, but right now, out of 5 iPhones, it gets 2.

And while I am still weary of those 3rd party ringtone apps -- simply because of the room for danger when fooling around with that level of the phone -- I see the need for it. Up until now, I told everyone to wait until Apple released their version because it would be great. Sadly, it's far from great and that makes me at least rethink my philosophy.

Please feel free to comment. Whether you agree or disagree, I'd love to know your thoughts as well as your stories about your ringtone experiences - Apple and otherwise.

Thanks for calling.