Making ringtones

Yes and no. Depends on how you go about it.

I personally use a program called iToner from Ambrosia Software (no I don't work for them). I like it because I write my own music and create my own loops and iToner lets me add whatever audio I want whether it be my own or from my iTunes library. I'm also not limited by only a 30 second clip, though my phone will go to voice mail before ever playing a full 2-5 minute song! I use an audio editor to edit my MP3's as well as any audio file I choose. Then I just save the files out as MP3's and add them into iToner... Sync... and then they appear in my ringtones. Pretty easy stuff, just takes a little technical know-how, but the learning curve is pretty tame.

I just updated to iTunes 7.5 and updated my iPhone to 1.1.2 and everything still works flawlessly with iToner, though I did have to resync as the update erased my custom tones, but resyncing only takes a minute.

Otherwise, yes... you'll have to buy songs x2 if you want to go the iTunes music store route.

You can use a 3rd party program, but it's just as easy to do it yourself if you have 1.1.2. After you edit the ringtone, you convert it to an .m3a using the iTunes AAC encoder, then just rename the extension to .m3r and move it to your Ringtones directory. Next time you sync, it'll sync the ringtone.

You can watch a YouTube video of how to do it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rngveKKjego

Try .m4r as the extension, thats what all mine are in iTunes

FlatE 🙂

Also it seems that your ringtones need to be under 30 seconds in length if you do it by that method, every one I've tried to add over 30 secs shows in iTunes but not on the iPhone.

Rich2k wrote:
Also it seems that your ringtones need to be under 30 seconds in length if you do it by that method, every one I've tried to add over 30 secs shows in iTunes but not on the iPhone.

My longest one is 36 seconds at the moment, I've not tried any longer than that. I've seen 30 seconds quoted quite a few times as the max, but also once I saw 40 seconds, which would explain my working 36 second one.

FlatE 🙂

Is the ringtone source free of licensing. If your original mp3 was downloaded with licensing restrictions I don't think you can use it as a ring tone. Try using different tracks, make sure they fit within the time limits we have mentioned above, and see how you get on. You need 1.1.2 on your iPhone btw.

FlatE 🙂

Did you go to the "Ringtones" tab in your iPhone‘s sync prefs in iTunes and check the box?

you can't use songs purchased from the itunes store because they are protected.

i posted these instructions in another thread:

step by step instructions to getting custom ringtones on your iphone:

1) open the song in quicktime pro or any other audio editing software and crop the song down to less then 40 seconds (very important, songs over 40 seconds won't show up in iphone ringtones sync window in itunes)

2) save song to desktop as AIF

3) open AIF in itunes, convert AIF to AAC (m4a) 128kpbs. if you already have itunes set to rip to 128kbps AACs then just right click and select convert to AAC, if not then go into your prefs and change the importing settings to 128kbps AAC.

4). once the song is converted to AAC, select it in itunes and hit command+r to show where it is on your computer. drag that to your desktop and delete the listing for it in itunes.

5) now download the latest version of makeiphoneringtone: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/25788/makeiphoneringtone
makeiphoneringtone is free and automates the process of changing the extension and placing it in the ringtones folder and adding it to itunes.

6) open up makeiphoneringtone, drag the AAC that is on your desktop into the makeiphoneringtone window

7) connect iphone, select the iphone in itunes and check the ringtones sync window, the song should now be listed. if not but the song is listed under ringtones in your itunes library then the song may have been too long and you will have to shorten it.

Message was edited by: Host

Flat Eric wrote:

Rich2k wrote:
Also it seems that your ringtones need to be under 30 seconds in length if you do it by that method, every one I've tried to add over 30 secs shows in iTunes but not on the iPhone.

My longest one is 36 seconds at the moment, I've not tried any longer than that. I've seen 30 seconds quoted quite a few times as the max, but also once I saw 40 seconds, which would explain my working 36 second one.

FlatE 🙂

I had one exactly 40seconds in length and that failed so maybe 39 secs or under is the limit.

Also all the ones I've created have been clean mp3s I've converted to aac so no DRM or restrictions on them.

John,
I tried what your posted here and my files go into iTunes in the music folder and not the iTunes ringtone playlist. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong. These are songs I ripped from a cd years ago. Is there something that I am missing I followed your steps 1-7?

Thanks Pat

With the new 1.1.2 you can. You just need to make sure they're ACC files. Then crop them so they're no longer than a 30 seconds long. Then rename the extension to .m4r. Double-click and it will show up and play in your Ringtones playlist.

I think it's silly to have material copyright protected that you've legally purchased, especially if all you're doing is using the files for personal use... like a ringtone.

Anyways... One way to get around iTunes copy protected songs is to just re-record them in realtime using something like "Wire Tap". Then just save the new raw audio file and convert to MP3 and then edit like you would to make any other ringtone. Might be a few other ways to RIP audio files, but that's an easy one that won't give you any trouble.