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Pixel Research Labs Ringer

Ray Aguilera — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:06:03 -0500

For several years now, the music industry has had quite a scam going. No, we’re not talking about the insane price of physical CDs. And no, we’re not talking about the fact that major label artists--the folks who actually did the work--make pennies on the dollar for the sale of those CDs. We’re talking about ringtones. iPhone users are luckier than most--iTunes will let you buy a ringtone for a mere 99 cents. Other cell carriers and plans can charge up to several dollars more. If you’re big into custom tones, that can add up fast. Ringer can help you quickly create your own iPhone ringtones from your existing media. No longer are you subject to iTunes’ sometimes spotty ringtone availability.

Whip up custom ringtones in a couple clicks.

Ringer is a simple app. All your editing happens in a single iTunes-style window, with your source list on the left, and a waveform of your selected song to the right. All it takes to create a ringtone is to drag the blue selection marker over the portion of audio you want to use (anything up to 30 seconds in length) and click Create. Ringer will downsample your audio (making the file size manageable while maintaining decent sound quality) and import it into iTunes automatically, where it will be ready for syncing to your iPhone.

The app offers some rudimentary playback controls for finding the right section of the song and also features a Preview button, which will play your current selection as a loop, so you can hear how it will sound coming out of your iPhone. There are also options to fade the beginning or ending of the clip and to add a short delay into the loop. Editing was simple enough, but there’s no way to zoom in to allow more precise editing of the start and end points, so those looking to create a seamless loop will have to rely on bit of trial and error to get their tones just right. And unlike iTunes’ ringtone feature, Ringer will work with any file you can open in QuickTime (including video files)--if you’re just dying for a ringtone of Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs, for example. Be warned: If you have any protected tracks from before iTunes went DRM-free, you’ll have to burn them to a CD and reimport them before you can use them with Ringer.

August 2009 Ringtone Contest Finalists

Ray Aguillera — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 11:55:07 -0500

Here they are, the finalists from our ringtone contest. Download the zip file, and drag them into your iTunes Library to sync them to your phone.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and especially to our finalists: Richard Busyak Jr (Alarm), Danny Bakan (Answer The Phone), Andrew Cowling (Busy Ring), Justin Brown (Happytone), Dennis Crawford (I Love You Mommy), David Garrett (Mother Ringtone), and Christopher Homick (No Beans In Me). And of course, congratulations to Ken Franklin for his winning Jeeves 2009.

Ken Franklin won a prize pack from STM ($170, www.stmbags.com.au) featuring a medium Evolution laptop backpack, medium Glove MacBook sleeve, and Cocoon iPod case.

Create Custom iPhone Ringtones

Roberto Baldwin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 12:38:51 -0600

Make a ringtone in GarageBand

What you need: A song or other audio file and GarageBand ($79.99 bundled in iLife ‘08, www.apple.com)

1. Prepare a New File

Start with a new music project, unless you already have a GarageBand masterpiece.

Create a new GarageBand project. Locate a source song file that’s AAC, MP3 , WAV, or AIFF format.

2. Import the Audio

Ignore the other instrument tracks, unless you want to remix your original song.

Choose the perfect song or sound. Drag your chosen song onto the timeline of the newly created project.

3. Mark the In-Point

Find the perfect clip from your song that won’t get old.

Find the point within the song that you want to begin your ringtone. Place your mouse in the lower-left corner of the audio clip until the Resize pointer tool appears. Drag the Resize pointer right until you reach the point you want the ringtone to begin. Now move the shortened sound file to the beginning of the GarageBand timeline.

4. Mark the Out-Point

Time mode helps you keep the ringtone under 40 seconds.

Ringtones can only be only 40 seconds long. Select the note icon within the LCD display to change the LCD mode to time mode. Using the Resize pointer, slide the end of your sound file from right to left until you find a good ending. Find a spot with a natural break, in case a shorter ringtone has  to repeat.

5. Fit the Region Length

Drag the yellow region area right to match the length of the audio clip.

Click the Cycle Region button at the bottom of the window (the one with the loop icon). Adjust the yellow area so that it covers the entire span of the selected area of sound. Play the selected region to make sure you’re happy with your editing and the point it loops.

6. Export the Ringtone

It’s ready for the iPhone. You can repeat the process to make the perfect ringtone for every contact.

Press Play. If you like what you hear, export the ringtone to iTunes. In the menu bar select Share > Send Ringtone to iTunes.

7. Sync the Ringtone

You’re all set. Now you just have to wait until someone calls.

Plug in your iPhone. Navigate to the ringtones tab. Make sure your new ringtone is set to sync. Then, on your iPhone, select a contact, and just tap the ringtone name (likely Default) to assign to your new masterpiece.

Make a Ringtone in iToner

iToner does just one thing, but it does it well.

If you already have a song that doesn’t need editing or you don’t have GarageBand, iToner is a good drag-and-drop ringtone creator. (It costs $15 from www.ambrosiasw.com.) While iToner will allow any length file be added to it, only the first 40 seconds will be made into a ringtone. If you need to edit the audio file but don’t have GarageBand, try an open-source audio editing application like, Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net).

Plug in your iPhone and launch iTunes. Launch iToner and drag a sound file into the application window. Click the Sync button and iToner will process the audio into a ringtone, then automatically transfer it to the phone. The ringtone will never show up in iTunes, but it’ll be ready when you disconnect.