Quick and Easy MP3 Ringers (Using Audacity)

Ok, first off, I'm not associated with Audacity in any way, this is just the easiest way I've found to make ringers from my MP3's. I'll assume you already have an MP3 of the song you want to use, or that you know how to rip the song yourself.

Get Audacity:
Go to audacity.sourceforge.net/ (If someone can make that a link for me, that'd be awesome. I only have two posts so far.)
Download and install the version for your OS (works well on Mac, Windows, or Linux)
Open the program

Load a song:
Simply drag the from your file browser window (Windows Explorer for Windows, Finder for Mac OS) and drop it in the Audacity window. Alternatively you can use the menus at the top to go to File » Open (I'm using the Windows version, should be similar for other OS's) and browse to the song you want to edit.

Edit the song:
You should have something that looks like song01.gif.
This is a graphical representation of the song, I'm using Queen - We Will Rock You since it has nice clear breaks in the sound (and a guitar solo that I really like.)

You can select around the song using the Selection Tool (the tool you are using by default when the program opens) to frame what you want to hear, so after some expieramenting, I've divided this into three parts in song02.gif

For the ringer, I'm not so interested in the vocal bits, but the clappy bits and the guitar solo are nice. The clapping is easy to see where it's quiet, but the lead in to the guitar solo is more difficult, so using the Zoom Tool (the magnifying glass under the Selection Tool in the toolbar under the menus) you can zoom in on that section. After five or six clicks with the magnifying glass, you get something that looks like song03.gif

it looks like about 1:28.6 is where we'll want the guitar solo bit to start, so switch back to the Selection Tool and click on 1:28.6 before zooming back out. To zoom back out, either select the Zoom Tool again and right-click or use the magnifying glass with the dash in it on the far right side of the toolbar. Once you can see the entire song again, you'll notice that if you hover over the line left by the selection tool, your cursor should turn into a hand. By dragging this line to the left or right, you get a darkened, selected, area of the song. Since we're looking to get rid of the Vocals section, we'll select it as well as all but two of the clappy bits. Now it should look like song04.gif then hit the delete key and it'll look like song05.gif

This has left us with two of the *clap-clap-STOMP* bits leading into the nice guitar solo. Now this is the important part, you want to go to the File menu and select the correct export for your phone.

If you'd like, you can get an MP3 version of the ringer I just made by copying this and pasting it into your browser: members.cox.net/amalthea/Queen_-_We_Will_Rock_You.mp3 (if someone can make that a link you can right-click the link and select Save As...)

or you could just use myxertones... it's alot simpler and still free.

Interesting, haven't heard of it. Needed to get my 5 posts, so I wanted to do something informative. Does it work on Mac and Linux?

i actually have no idea.. lol
but you don't have to download anything at all
www . myxertones . com (don't have enough posts to post a link, like wtf?)
anyway.. you just upload the mp3 file you want for a ringtone and you can even choose what portion of the song you want...
also you can send wallpapers and stuff.
i like it

Interesting, I'll take a look, but it sounds like you wouldn't be able to combine two parts of a song, which is what I do fairly often

oh cool deal..
that sounds pretty neat..
but i can't say that i've ever had that desire :-P

Well, you know, sometimes I like to have the lyrics of a song without an instrumental in the middle (this can be difficult to get to sound nice) or sometimes you want to sew together two instrumental bits.

In the one I linked above, I took a couple of the clapping bits from the front and attached them to the guitar solo at the end.

wow that's pretty clever!
lucky for me (and my small attention span) i'm just fine with what i've got

audacity is a great software, it has my blessing

Couldn't agree more! Best freeware audio tool out there.

Had a look at myexertones and I think it can be usefull too, but I prefer to wokr on the sound myself and upload it directly to my phone though