How to create a freeware cellphone telephone ringtone from an MP3 song? [Telecom]

How can I create a ringtone from an MP3 song using freeware?

And, how do I get that ringtone onto my AT&T (Cingular) Motorola RAZR V3
cell phone?

---

› See More: How to create a freeware cellphone telephone ringtone from an MP3 song? [Telecom]

Susan wrote:
> How can I create a ringtone from an MP3 song using freeware?
>

Audacity is a great way to make ringtones. Instructions are at the url
below:
<http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Making_Ringtones>.

> And, how do I get that ringtone onto my AT&T (Cingular) Motorola RAZR
> V3 cell phone?

Dunno about your specific model but I've been doing it on Motorolas &
Samsungs via bluetooth or cable.

hth,
-Craig

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:39:20 -0700, Craig wrote:

> Susan wrote:
>> How can I create a ringtone from an MP3 song using freeware?
>>
>
> Audacity is a great way to make ringtones. Instructions are at the url
> below:
> <http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Making_Ringtones>.

I posted this but I don't see it for some reason, so I repost.


I don't know how to get the ringtone into your AT&T telephone but here is
how to create a 20 second ringtone from any MP3 song on your computer that
won't blow your telephone speaker ...... (this I got off the Internet a few
years back so I don't know whom to give proper credit to) .......

IMPORT MP3:
1. Locate any desired MP3 song on your Windows computer hard drive
2. Start Audacity 1.2.6 freeware (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)
3. Import the desired MP3 using "Project > Import Audio"

CHOOSE MP3 SNIPPET:
1. Using left click, play, & stop, roughly choose the desired snippet
2. With nothing playing, left click near the middle of your selection
3. "View > Zoom to Selection" to get rough start & end points
Note: You want only about 25 to 30 seconds showing in your window

DELETE THE REST:
1. With nothing playing, left click near the beginning of your selection
2. Press "Edit > Select > Start to Cursor" & then "Edit > Delete"
3. With nothing playing, left click to set the cursor at the snippet end
4. Press "Edit > Select > Cursor to End" & then "Edit > Delete"
Note: Aim for a ringtone of about 20 seconds (25 seconds maximum)

REMOVE STEREO:
1. Set "Edit > Preferences > File Formats > Bit Rate: 32 kbps" > OK
2. Locate the arrowed pulldown on left to the select "Split Stereo Track"
Note: This pulldown is hard to find; it's not on the pulldown menus;
it's on the left; there is an X to the left, then the song title,
then the downarrow has the pulldown for "Split Stereo Track".
3. Hit the "X" for one of the now-split tracks to delete that one track
4. Select the one track (ctrl+A) & press "Project > Quick Mix"
Note: That creates an empty second track; I'm not sure why it's needed.

FADE & FILTER:
1. Set the "Project rate:" at the bottom left to 22050 Hz (22.05 kHz)
3. Sweep-select the last two seconds & hit "Effect > Fade Out"
4. Ctrl+A, choose "Effect > High Pass Filter > 150 Hz"
Note: This is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to protect your phone speaker!
5. Amplify by selecting ("ctrl + A) & pressing "Effect > Amplify"
Note: Turn "Allow Clipping" off and only amplify enough not to clip;
do not allow the "New Peak Amplitude" to rise above 3 dB.

EXPORT:
1. File > Export selection as MP3 & give it a name.
2. The filename (not counting the .mp3) cannot exceed 32 characters.
3. The file size should be less than 100 KB (average around 80 KB).

This creates a good loud 20 second mono ringtone at the right bitrate and
with the right frequencies so as not to destroy your telephone speaker.

How you then get this ringtone from your computer into your telephone is a
mystery for me and best left for the others here to describe. Just saying
"bluetooth" or "cable" isn't enough to actually do it, especially
bluetooth, which is very difficult at best. I doubt you can do it without
special software but I defer to the experts on how to transfer a ringtone
to a Motorola telephone.

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:33:49 -0700 (PDT), gk wrote:

> The ringtone is sent to the phone as a message.

How?

Do I simply send an email from Thunderbird on the PC with the ringtone as
an MP3 mime-encoded attachment to the telephone's SMS address (assuming it
has one)?

I tried it and nothing went thru to the telephone.

Do you have more comprehensive instructions on how to 'send a ringtone MP3
as a mime-encoded attachment to SMS"?

Susan wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:33:49 -0700 (PDT), gk wrote:
>
>> The ringtone is sent to the phone as a message.
>
> How?

You clipped the critical part of gk's statement...

> On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:33:49 -0700 (PDT), gk wrote:
> I'm with Verizon, not ATT, but I've used http://www.myxertones.com/
> successfully.

....so, now, go to myxertones and...
>
> Do I simply send an email from Thunderbird on the PC with the ringtone as
> an MP3 mime-encoded attachment to the telephone's SMS address (assuming it
> has one)?
>
> I tried it and nothing went thru to the telephone.
>
> Do you have more comprehensive instructions on how to 'send a ringtone MP3
> as a mime-encoded attachment to SMS"?

read <http://www.myxertones.com/learn/>.

hth,

-Craig

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:54:41 -0700, Tom wrote:

> IMPORT MP3:
> 1. Locate any desired MP3 song on your Windows computer hard drive
> 2. Start Audacity 1.2.6 freeware (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)
> 3. Import the desired MP3 using "Project > Import Audio"

Funny, but the directions on the audacity web site are totally different.
I guess both end up with ringtones so I reproduce the audacity instructions
here.


Edit your ringtone

1) Click Project > Import Audio (or File > Import > Audio in Audacity Beta)
and import your source file. This can be any MP3, WAV, AIFF, OGG or FLAC
file that Audacity can open.

2) Select the portion of audio you want to use for your ringtone (say 15-20
seconds). To do this, click in the audio track and drag a selection area to
left or right with your mouse - you can see the length of the selected
audio in the timeline above the track. Many phones will loop the ringtone
automatically (repeat it over and over), so choose your selection area with
that in mind. To hear your selection play looped in Audacity, type L on the
keyboard or hold down SHIFT while clicking the green Play button. To stop
the playback, hit spacebar or click the yellow Stop button.

3) Click Edit > Trim. This will remove the rest of the file, leaving only
the section you selected. If you want to use the whole file, then skip this
step.

4) Add any effects you may want to the ringtone, by clicking in the Track
Panel where the mute/solo buttons are to select all the track, then click
the Effect menu. Be sparing with effects, but two you may want to consider
are:

- Equalization. Many phone speakers cannot reproduce very low frequencies
so consider removing them. You'll notice a horizontal line that keeps a
steady 0 dB across all frequencies. Using the mouse, you'll be able to
click a series of points along the scale to create a curve. Bring the line
down to -24 dB on the Y-axis for the low frequencies from 30-300Hz on the
X-axis. You may want to increase the lower frequencies above this point say
to 600 Hz, and reduce the highest frequencies above say 10 000 Hz. This
should make the sound somewhat richer and less "tinny" on a small cellphone
speaker.

- Compressor (which will reduce the difference between loud and soft and so
make the ringtone sound louder). This will again suit a small cellphone
speaker which may not be able to handle large changes in dynamic range. The
terms of the compressor effect are as follows:

* Threshold is the volume level at which compression starts to be
applied. The further right the slider, the louder the input has to be
before compression is applied.

* Ratio - the further the slider is to right, the stronger is the
compression applied

* Attack time - amount of time compressor waits to respond after the
Threshold is reached

* If the "Normalize" box is checked then after compression the audio
will be set to maximum possible amplification without adding distortion.
This may be a bad idea on cellphone speakers which can give distortions
before the maximum possible level is reached. Instead use Effect > Amplify
after compression and choose a new Peak Amplitude (dB) of -3 dB.

Or instead of Compressor, consider using the Hard Limiter from the LAPSDA
plug-in package which will also restrict the maximum volume to -3 dB. "Wet"
and "dry" refer to the strength of an effect, with 1 being full effect and
0 representing no effect. Set the Hard Limiter to a dB limit of -3 dB, Wet
Level to 1.0 and Residue Level to 0.0. Now, just the same as when you
amplify to -3 dB after compression, you will get no signal above -3 dB, but
you will also get a very sharp reduction in dynamic range which will be
more extreme than that you get with the compressor.

If after Compressor or Hard Limiter your ringtone does not sound quite loud
enough on the phone, you could try setting the Peak Amplitude or dB limit
to -2 dB or -1 dB instead.

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:55:30 -0700, Craig wrote:

> Fwiw, I find MPT to be kludgy & finicky.

Yeah. I see. I find audacity to be kludgy and finicky myself.
Here are the full instructions for creating a ring tone.

Choose the ringtone source

The source for your ringtone will most likely be an audio file on your
computer. Select the file you want and import it into Audacity using the
Project > Import Audio command (or File > Import > Audio in Audacity Beta).
Audacity can import MP3, WAV, AIFF, OGG and FLAC files. If your audio file
is not in this format, you can convert it to WAV or AIFF (as long as it is
not a purchased file) with SuperPlayer for Windows, FFMPEGX for OS X, or
mplayer for Linux.

Alternatively you can play any audio file on your computer (including
purchased files), or a CD, or any other sound on your computer including
sounds playing over the internet, and record it . This is not the highest
quality way to grab the sound from a CD or from a purchased file, but it is
probably OK for making a ringtone, as quality often needs to be compromised
in a ringtone to make the file size smaller. But if you want to grab a
perfect digital copy of the CD track, or you cannot record it easily,
extract it digitally to WAV or .AIFF as described at How to import CDs. Or
to make a perfect copy of a purchased file, burn it to an audio CD in the
application licensed to play it, then extract the CD track in the same way.


[edit] Edit your ringtone

1) Click Project > Import Audio (or File > Import > Audio in Audacity Beta)
and import your source file. This can be any MP3, WAV, AIFF, OGG or FLAC
file that Audacity can open.

2) Select the portion of audio you want to use for your ringtone (say 15-20
seconds). To do this, click in the audio track and drag a selection area to
left or right with your mouse - you can see the length of the selected
audio in the timeline above the track. Many phones will loop the ringtone
automatically (repeat it over and over), so choose your selection area with
that in mind. To hear your selection play looped in Audacity, type L on the
keyboard or hold down SHIFT while clicking the green Play button. To stop
the playback, hit spacebar or click the yellow Stop button.

3) Click Edit > Trim. This will remove the rest of the file, leaving only
the section you selected. If you want to use the whole file, then skip this
step.

4) Add any effects you may want to the ringtone, by clicking in the Track
Panel where the mute/solo buttons are to select all the track, then click
the Effect menu. Be sparing with effects, but two you may want to consider
are:

- Equalization. Many phone speakers cannot reproduce very low frequencies
so consider removing them. You'll notice a horizontal line that keeps a
steady 0 dB across all frequencies. Using the mouse, you'll be able to
click a series of points along the scale to create a curve. Bring the line
down to -24 dB on the Y-axis for the low frequencies from 30-300Hz on the
X-axis. You may want to increase the lower frequencies above this point say
to 600 Hz, and reduce the highest frequencies above say 10 000 Hz. This
should make the sound somewhat richer and less "tinny" on a small cellphone
speaker.

- Compressor (which will reduce the difference between loud and soft and so
make the ringtone sound louder). This will again suit a small cellphone
speaker which may not be able to handle large changes in dynamic range. The
terms of the compressor effect are as follows:

* Threshold is the volume level at which compression starts to be
applied. The further right the slider, the louder the input has to be
before compression is applied.

* Ratio - the further the slider is to right, the stronger is the
compression applied

* Attack time - amount of time compressor waits to respond after the
Threshold is reached

* If the "Normalize" box is checked then after compression the audio
will be set to maximum possible amplification without adding distortion.
This may be a bad idea on cellphone speakers which can give distortions
before the maximum possible level is reached. Instead use Effect > Amplify
after compression and choose a new Peak Amplitude (dB) of -3 dB.

Or instead of Compressor, consider using the Hard Limiter from the LAPSDA
plug-in package which will also restrict the maximum volume to -3 dB. "Wet"
and "dry" refer to the strength of an effect, with 1 being full effect and
0 representing no effect. Set the Hard Limiter to a dB limit of -3 dB, Wet
Level to 1.0 and Residue Level to 0.0. Now, just the same as when you
amplify to -3 dB after compression, you will get no signal above -3 dB, but
you will also get a very sharp reduction in dynamic range which will be
more extreme than that you get with the compressor.

If after Compressor or Hard Limiter your ringtone does not sound quite loud
enough on the phone, you could try setting the Peak Amplitude or dB limit
to -2 dB or -1 dB instead.


[edit] What type of file does your phone require?

You need to check what type of file format your phone requires for its
ringtones, and whether the file needs to be mono or stereo.


[edit] Ringtone formats

There are many different ringtone formats in existence, but they fall into
three main categories:

* Monophonic - just one note at a time, usually RTTL format. If you
want a ringtone in this format, it's often easiest to simply key it into
your phone if it supports that.

* Polyphonic - multiple notes at a time. Some phones can play true MIDI
files, others rely on sp-midi or .mmf formats

* Music ring tones - actual digitally sampled music files including MP3
and WAV supported by Audacity, plus other formats like AMR and QCP.

Most new phones will support polyphonic ringtones. Phones supporting music
ringtones tend to be more expensive models, or PDA phones combining a
handheld computer.


[edit] Convert stereo to mono

Irrespective of the required file format, many phones will want mono
ringtone files. So if the track you are editing is stereo, the next step is
to convert it to mono.

1. Click on the name of the song (in the Track Panel to left of the
waveform, where the downward pointing arrow is). This brings down a
selection menu.
2. Select the Split Stereo Track option.
3. Click on the name of one of the resulting tracks then on "mono" using
the same menu
4. Close the other track by clicking on [X] on the Track Panel.

The remaining track will now only have the contents from one of the stereo
channels you had before. If you want information from both channels in your
ringtone, do this:

1. Choose Split stereo Track as in steps 1) and 2) above
2. Click on the name of both tracks in turn and make each mono as in
step 3) above
3. Select both tracks by using the keyboard shortcut CTRL + A (CMND + A
on a Mac) and play them, and look at the green VU playback meter (the
left-hand meter in the Meter Toolbar):

VU Playback Meter


If the meter is not visible, enable it on the Interface tab of Preferences
by checking Enable Meter Toolbar. All you have to do is make sure the red
hold lights to right of the green bars are not showing, which indicates the
combined volume of the two tracks is too loud and will distort. In the
image above, you can see the left-hand channel had distorted at one point
and brought on the red light. If any hold lights are showing, move the
-....+ gain sliders (below the mute/solo buttons) on each Track Panel to
left by the same amount until the green bars are well over to the right,
but no longer bringing the red lights on. Then click Project > Quick Mix.
HINT: If you use Audacity Beta, it's much simpler to convert stereo to
mono! Simply click in the Track Panel then Project > Stereo to Mono, which
mixes in data from both channels to mono without distortion.


[edit] Export the file from Audacity

The following instructions show you how to export your edited (and mono if
needs be) ringtone from Audacity as a WAV or MP3. If your phone needs a
ringtone to be in some other format, skip to here.


[edit] Phones requiring WAV files

If your phone requires an MP3 file, skip to here.


As an example of exporting a WAV file specific to a particular type of
phone, consider the following Motorola Sprint Nextel cellphones:

i265, i275, i405, i450, i560, i710, 730, 750, 760, 830, i833, i836 ,850,
860, i870, i930

These require ringtones to be in the following format:

WAV (Microsoft); Bit depth: 8 bits; Sample Rate: 8 000Hz; Channels: 1
(mono).

If your phone has the same requirements as this, the instructions below
should work for your phone. If the only information you have is that the
WAV needs to have a bit rate of 64 kbps, these instructions will also
probably work for your phone, because in a WAV file the bitrate is always
the bit depth multiplied by the sample rate, multiplied by the number of
channels, and so the WAV in our example is (8 * 8 * 1) = 64 kbps.

If your phone requires WAV files with slightly different characteristics
than these, you can adjust the tutorial instructions below appropriately.
It's assumed you've already made the file mono as per the instructions
above.

1. Look at the Project Rate button at the bottom left of the screen. If
it is already showing "8000", skip to step 4) below. Otherwise, click on
the button and select the "8000 Hz" option. If there isn't an 8000 Hz
option, select "Other ..." and type 8000 in the box that pops up (or in
Audacity Beta, select and overtype one of the values).
2. Click Project > Quick Mix.
3. You'll see silence added to the end of the audio due to the
conversion to 8 000 Hz, and silence in front if you chose a portion of
audio that wasn't at the start of the track. Simply select the area of your
audio again, and Edit > Trim. Note: If you use Audacity Beta, it's much
simpler: after changing the Project Rate button to 8000, do Tracks >
Resample, type 8000 in the box that pops up, and click OK.
4. In other than Audacity Beta, click Edit > Preferences (Audacity >
Preferences on a Mac) and then the File Formats tab. In the "Uncompressed
Export Format" dropdown, select "WAV Microsoft 8-bit PCM)" and click OK.
Then click on File > Export As WAV, select a file name to export your WAV
file to and hit Save.
5. In Audacity Beta, click File > Export and in the Save as type
dropdown in the "Export File" dialogue, choose "WAV, AIFF and other
uncompressed types" and choose a file name to export to in the "File name"
box above that. Click the Options button and in the "Format" dropdown,
select "WAV (Microsoft 8-bit PCM)". Click OK, then Click Save.


[edit] Phones requiring MP3 files

As an example of a phone requiring an MP3 ringtone, the Motorola i580
requires MP3 files at:

Bit Rate: 32 kbps; Sample Rate: 8 000 Hz; Channels: 1 (mono).

If your phone has the same requirements then it should also work for you.
If your phone requires MP3 files with slightly different characteristics
you can adjust the tutorial instructions below appropriately. It's assumed
you've already made the file mono as per the instructions above.

1. If you have not already done so, download the LAME MP3 encoder to
your computer and tell Audacity where to find it. Instructions on doing
this are here.
2. Look at the Project Rate button at the bottom left of the screen. If
it is already showing "8000", skip to step 3) below. Otherwise, click on
the button and select the "8000 Hz" option. If there isn't an 8000 Hz
option, select "Other ..." and type 8000 in the box that pops up (or in
Beta, select and overtype one of the values).
3. In other than Audacity Beta,click Edit > Preferences (Audacity >
Preferences on a Mac) and then the File Formats tab. In the MP3 Export
Setup section near the bottom, in the "Bit Rate" dropdown, select "32" and
click OK. Then click on File > Export As MP3, select a file name to export
your MP3 file to and hit Save.
4. In Audacity Beta, click File > Export and in the Save as type
dropdown in the "Export File" dialogue, choose "MP3 files" and choose a
file name to export to in the "File name" box above that. Click the Options
button, then at "Bit Rate Mode" select the "Constant" radio button, and
choose 32 kbps in the Quality dropdown. Leave Channel Mode at "Stereo".
Click OK, then click Save.


[edit] Phones requiring other formats

If your phone requires files in other than WAV and MP3 format, then the
best course after editing the file is to export it as a 44 100 Hz 16 bit
PCM WAV file (either mono or stereo according to how the file is now), then
convert it to the format you require with an appropriate conversion
program.

1. Look at the Project Rate button at the bottom left of the screen. If
it is already showing "44100", skip to step 4) below. Otherwise, click on
the button and select the "44100 Hz" option. If there isn't an 44100 Hz
option, select "Other ..." and type 44100 in the box that pops up (or in
Audacity Beta, select and overtype one of the values).
2. Click Project > Quick Mix.
3. You'll see silence added to the end of the audio due to the
conversion to 44 100 Hz, and silence in front if you chose a portion of
audio that wasn't at the start of the track. Simply select the area of your
audio again, and Edit > Trim as before. Note: If you use Audacity Beta,
it's much simpler: after changing the Project Rate button to 44100, do
Tracks > Resample, type 44100 in the box that pops up, and click OK.
4. Click Edit > Preferences (Audacity > Preferences on a Mac) and then
the File Formats tab. In the Uncompressed Export Format dropdown, select
"WAV (Microsoft 16 bit PCM)" and click OK.
5. Click on File > Export As WAV and select a file name to export your
WAV file to.

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:54:41 -0700, Tom wrote:

> REMOVE STEREO:
> 1. Set "Edit > Preferences > File Formats > Bit Rate: 32 kbps" > OK

http://www.cd2ringtone.com suggests a bit rate as high as 128.

Here is the relevant instruction

"It is advisable to know the maximum bit rate your phone will allow as an
MP3. Most allow 128, but some will be less and others more. The higher
the bit rate, the better the sound quality. Use 96 when you rip a CD to be
safe. If you get a "format not supported" or similar error when you try to
transfer or play, drop to 46. If 96 works and you're not pleased with the
quality, try it again at 128 or 192"

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:54:41 -0700, Tom wrote:
> 1. With nothing playing, left click near the beginning of your selection
> 2. Press "Edit > Select > Start to Cursor" & then "Edit > Delete"
> 3. With nothing playing, left click to set the cursor at the snippet end
> 4. Press "Edit > Select > Cursor to End" & then "Edit > Delete"
> Note: Aim for a ringtone of about 20 seconds (25 seconds maximum)


http://www.cd2ringtone.com/audacitytutorial.shtm has a detailed procedure
for removing all but the ringtone 20 seconds from an mp3 audio file

7. Hit the PLAY button (green arrow) and decide how much of the song you
want to use. 20 to 30 seconds is plenty. Use the timeline above the graph
as a guide.

8. You'll need to establish a beginning and and end point by clicking with
the mouse. Make sure the cursor is in the "select" mode (looks like I )
It should default to this , but click the button in the upper left corner
of the toolbar if not.

9. If your ring tone will start at the beginning of the song, that is
already selected as the default "start" point. Let the song play to where
you want the ring tone to end, and hit the PAUSE button.

10. Where you paused there should be a green arrow on the timeline
pointing downward.

11. Put the cursor inside the graph area, right underneath the center of
that arrow, and double click. A line should appear from top to bottom.

12. Put the mouse cursor near that line and a hand should appear with a
finger pointing to the left. Left click and hold, and drag to the left to
the ZERO point to select that part of the song. It will turn a darker
gray. Hit the STOP button. (very Important -- don't skip this step).

13. At this point if you are unsure if you got the exact portion of the
song you wanted, hit the STOP button, then hit REWIND, and PLAY again. If
you want to choose a section of the MP3 that does NOT start at the
beginning of the song, continue on to step 14. Otherwise, skip to step 19.

14. If you want your ring tone to begin somewhere in the middle of the
song, PLAY to where you want it to start and hit PAUSE. Then double click
inside the graph area to establish the "start" line.

15. Choose PROJECT on the menu bar. Then choose Add Label at Selection to
mark that spot. A red flag will appear in the label track at the bottom.

16. Hit STOP, then PLAY to resume the song. When it gets to your end
spot, hit PAUSE.

17. Once again double click inside the graph under the green arrow, to
establish the end line.

18. Hover the mouse over that end line until it changes to a finger
pointing left. Click and drag to the red flag to select your portion of
the song. Hit the STOP button.

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:33:49 -0700 (PDT), gk wrote:
> The ringtone is sent to the phone as a message.

That generally costs the user money and this is a freeware group.

I suggest the op read http://www.cd2ringtone.com/pctophonetutorial.shtm
which explains

"While some newer Motorola phones, like the V3xx, allow ring tones to be
accessed from a memory card, most demand that the file be stored in the
phone's internal memory.

Mini USB cables and Data cables can only access the memory card when used
by themselves. They can access both memory locations when used with the
Motorola Phone Tools software. Ring tones are located in the phones
internal memory. You cannot directly access internal memory with a USB
cable alone. You'll need the Motorola Phone Tools software to help.

However, you can transfer files to the memory card with just the USB cable,
and then move or copy them to the phones internal memory using the phones
own built in software, thus avoiding the purchase of the Motorola Phone
Tools software.

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:55:30 -0700, Craig wrote:

> For my ATT phones, I've used either a usb cable or bluetooth connection.
> The only software needed were the device drivers. At that point,
> they show up as a drive or device on windows explorer. It's just a
> copy/paste operation after that.

More specifically on the bluetooth method, from
http://www.cd2ringtone.com/pctophonetutorial.shtm

USING A BLUETOOTH ADAPTER TO TRANSFER FILES:
3. On your phone, Menu/Settings/Connection, highlight Bluetooth and hit
Select.

4. Choose Setup, and for Name you can type in your name or your phones
model #.

5. Turn the Power on, highlight Find Me and hit Select.

6. Start the Bluetooth software on your PC.

7. Depending on the type of Bluetooth software used, when it finds your
phone, a new folder should appear on the screen of your PC. It may use
your phones model number in its name. Inside that folder will be your cell
phones folders.

8. Open the "audio" folder. Then open My Computer, browse to where you
saved your MP3 ring tone, and copy and paste it to the "audio" folder on
your phone.

9. On your phone, Menu/Settings/Audio/Detail/Calls. Choose your new ring
tone.

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:27:31 -0700, Susan wrote:

> Can't I just install these freebie Motorola USB drivers, connect the RAZR,
> and slide the MP3 ringtones as files onto the Motorola Cingular AT&T RAZR
> as a hard drive???

No. That would be too easy.

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:40:27 -0500, Ron May wrote:

> Bit Pim is freeware http://www.bitpim.org/
> What can and can't be done with a cell phone is heavily dependent
> on what model phone you have and who the provider is.
> it quickly gets specialized in how you get it to your phone.
> There's really no subsitute for plodding through the specialized forums

On first inspection bitpim freeware looks good but unfortunately the bitpim
site says it's only for CDMA phones. Is it?

For the record ---------------


Please pardon my long-winded answer. There are three parts to your
question:

1. Get the "content" for your ringtone. You sound like you
already have an mp3 you want to use, but if not, you can download
mp3 or midi files from the internet, or "rip" something you like from
a audio CD using free software like Express Rip which is available
here: http://www.nch.com.au/rip/index.html

If you want to "capture" an online audio stream, there is also
an inexpensive ($18 or free demo) program called Total Recorder
which can make an mp3 out of anything playing through your
computer's sound card. This program will also let you convert
a midi file to an mp3. (Some people prefer the simplicity of
a midi-style ringtone to that of a poly-phonic clip from an
audio file or CD.) http://www.highcriteria.com/


2. Edit your mp3. Select the 20 or 30 seconds which you want
to use for your ringtone. Total Recorder can be used for this.
Or you can use Wavepad which is available from the same folks
who produce Express Rip (see above) or even use the basic
"Sound Recorder" which is included in you Microsoft Windows
operating system.

Your phone probably has a size limit on how big a ringtone can
be. Usually this is somewhere in the range of 100KB to 350KB
but I don't know specifically for the RAZR V3. The worst that
happens if your file is too big is that your phone gives you an
error message and you will have to re-edit your file to be
a little smaller.


3. Transfer your ringtone into your cellphone. There are several
ways to do this:

A. Use Email. For most cellphones, the easiest way to transfer a
ringtone is to email your completed ringtone MP3 file to your phone.
Because you are an ATT subscriber, here's how:

1. From your computer, use any email program.
2. send to [email protected]
(changing xxxyyyzzzz to your own 10-digit phone number)
3. enter subject line as normal.
4. enter any beief text as normal.
5. attach your mp3 file, but stay under the 300 KB limit.

When you receive the text message, your phone should present you with
the option of saving the attachment as a ringtone.

I believe you can also do this with T-mobile and Sprint using these
address formats:

T-Mobile: [email protected]
Sprint PCS: [email protected]

Verizon is a little different. I believe that their mail gateway at
[email protected] does not support attachments. Verizon Wireless
customers need to send their mp3 ringtones using Verizon's picture
messaging service which uses the address format [email protected].
Verizon picture messaging service also has a web interface at:

https://picture.vzw.com/pub/guestCom...mediaType=free

Depending upon the package which you have with your wireless provider,
the cost of receiving a text message with attachment may or may not be
included in your plan. If your plan does not include the cost of
text messages, you can still receive individual messages which will be
billed at a nominal rate of $0.15 to $0.30 depending on your provider.
Check with your provider to confirm the exact rate. (Note that this
is
still much less expensive than "buying" an off-the-shelf ringtone for
two or three dollars.)


B. Connect your phone to your computer. If you have the correct USB
cable, you can connect your phone to your computer and transfer your
ringtone using a free software transfer program such as Bitpim
available
from http://www.bitpim.org/ This approach is a little more
complicated
than just emailing your ringtone, but may be more economical if you
want to transfer lots of different ringtones or if you are in the
habit
of adding new ringtones frequently.

Note that most phones will not allow you to just copy mp3 ringtones
using from your computer using Windows Explore (File Manager) because
ringtones are not stored in the visible portion of the phone's
memory. You need to use a program like Bitpim for access.


C. Copying to a memory chip. Possibly someone has been successful
with this approach. I have not. If your phone uses a removable
memory
chip (not the SIM chip) for supplemental storage of music, pictures
and
games, you can copy mp3 files to the chip using a chip reader attached
to your computer. (These are the same devices used for reading the
memory chips to transfer photos from your digital camera. You should
be able to buy one for $10 - $20 online or at your local computer or
camera store.) Unfortunately, for many phones, mp3 files stored on
the
memory chip can be played as music but cannot be copied to the area of
the phone memory that holds the ringtones.

If someone has a simple way to make this copy-to-chip approach work,
I'd such like to know about it.


You may also find these sites helpful: http://www.ventones.com and
http://www.makeownringtone.com I have not used either one. But keep
that even if the web site is free, anything mailed to your phone will
incur a message fee from your wireless provider if messages are not
bundled in your plan.

And, finally, this is a useful web site that shows the step-by-step use of
Bitpim with an LG phone:
http://joyboner.com/how-to-custom-mp...colate-vx8500/

Enjoy. I wish you well.

Cheers,
The Old Bear

In alt.cellular.cingular Susan <[email protected]> wrote:
> How can I create a ringtone from an MP3 song using freeware?

I made my own ringtones, snipping the sound that I wanted out of an mp3
file using itunes, and then transferring them to Nokia and Motorola phones
as a bluetooth file download.

Gaffer74 http://myforum.lasyk.net/archive/index.php/t-8415.html

Your phone rings for about 21 seconds before voicemail, so you don't need
mp3 files any larger

iTunes, Edit, Preferences, Importing, Import Settings mp3 128kbps.

Play the song you want, and locate the part you want to be the ringtone
(IE: 00:30.00 to 00:51.00) and then Command-I to get info on the song.

Under the Options tab in the Get Info menu, check both start and stop time
and enter the start and stop times for the ringtone section (i.e. Start
time 00:30.00 End Time 00:51.00).

You may want to play it once to make sure it's well cropped.
Select the song in your library and go to
Advanced -> Convert Selection to MP3.

It will convert ONLY the portion of the song that you selected to a new,
cropped MP3 file. I renamed mine to the same title - ringtone.
Right click, "Show in Windows Explorer".

> And, how do I get that ringtone onto my AT&T (Cingular) Motorola RAZR V3
> cell phone?

I was able to pair my Bluetooth phone, and drag-drop to the OBEX file
Transfer - Music Files folder.

You might be able to right click on the MP3 file and "send to", bluetooth,
other.

Nokia PC Suite offers a handy drag-and drop interface.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5