Tone it Up!
Use these simple tips and tools to create a ringtone. But, that’s not all we have! Apart from ringtones, there are other exciting ideas for your phone that await your attention.
When the mobile phone was first invented, the technology it used was pretty basic. It was limited to only voice and text communication. Graduating from being a luxury to a necessity, the technology inside mobile phones also kept developing, Now, every second person in India can be seen carrying a cell phone. Today they are used for communication as well as making a style statement—thanks to the availability of high-tech models.
WAV, MIDI and MP3 are the most commonly compatible formats in phones today. Let’s play around with these audio formats and see how we can create exciting ringtones for your phone.
Clip it!Expandable memory in your phone may let you store larger MP3 or WAV files, but the phone’s internal memory has restrictions. In any case, you can simply slice-n-dice your favorite tracks and put the smaller sized file back into your phone. Let’s check out how we can do this.
For clipping a track, you need an audio editor. If you have used one already, such as Cool Edit Pro or Sound Forge, then you probably have a fair idea. Otherwise, you can download Audacity (3 MB), which is freely available at audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows. Along with this, download the LAME MP3 encoder (152 KB) which helps Audacity to export the clipped file as MP3.
After installing Audacity, open (import) the MP3 file and make the preferred selection in the audio clip. You can do this by dragging the mouse across it, the same way you’d select text in a text editor.
TIP: Click on the magnifier in the tool bar, to help make a precise and specific selection of the music file.
Now, click on ‘Edit | Trim’ ([Ctrl] + [T] is the shortcut) in the menu bar to clip the selection. Listen to the clip and check if it is to your liking. You may exit and return to repeat the procedure if you want to change the beginning and end of the clip.
Once the clip is ready, you can add effects to get a polished ringtone. The first thing that you need to do is ‘Fade-in’ and ‘Fade-out’. Select a small portion at the beginning of the clip and select ‘Effect | Fade-in’, in the menu bar. Repeat the procedure at the end of the clip, but this time, select ‘Effect | Fade-out’.
Now your ringtone is ready for cosmetic changes (optional). You can now choose effects for the ring tone. Add echo, reverb, delay, chorus, or even amplify the sound of the file using ‘Effect’ in the menu bar. The application offers many more options to explore.
Irritating alarm!
If you’re a person who snores right through even the loudest morning alarms, try this one. Well, this kind of project is also pretty irritating and can annoy your friends if you set it as a ring tone. Nonetheless it will certainly wake you up for that urgent meeting you need to attend early in the morning.
Caution: It might not be very pleasant to wake up to this alarm. Although it isn’t too loud, it’s painfully annoying.
Most phones today let you choose the music file you want to use as an alarm. Here you do not need to import a file—we’ll create one from scratch. Start Audacity and select ‘New’, from the file menu. Now, to generate a tone, follow these simple steps.
Select ‘Generate | Tone’ from the menu bar. Here, the default waveform is Sine and the amplitude is 1.00—leave these unchanged. Change the ‘Frequency’ to 5000.00 Hz and in the ‘Length’ (in seconds) field, enter 0.25 and click on ‘Generate tone’. Once the tone is generated, click on the zoom-out button three or four times and then click once at the end of the generated tone (the light-grey area).
Now, we need a bit of silence after the tone so that it can be looped to form one long clip. Select ‘Generate | Silence’, enter the value 0.12 and click on ‘Generate silence’. It will show up as a dark grey area in the timeline.
Half the job is done; now you need to loop the tone and silence to make the audio file for your alarm. Select the entire clip (the blue and dark-grey area). Now select ‘Edit | Copy’ or press [Ctrl] + [C]. Click once after the end point of the clip and paste it using [Ctrl] + [V]. That’s one repetition—you can repeat the loop any number of times; 10 should do fine.
Now save the file by selecting ‘File | Export as MP3’ and save it to the desired location. Transfer the file to your phone and test the sound. If needed, you can amplify the file by a few decibels.
TIP: You can try different combinations of frequencies and timings for the tone and silence. However, frequencies higher than 16500 Hz will barely be audible, since the human ear can’t tolerate such a wide range. If irritation occurs, it is recommended not to listen to the tones at all. This tip is only to show you one of the ways to create high frequency sound.
Not loud enough!
All of us like listening to songs on our mobile phones. Let’s say your favorite track isn’t loud enough in spite of the volume control being at maximum. To amplify the volume of the file you are listening to, refer to the box below and follow the steps. Just be careful not to hurt your ears.
Excellent tool for sound editing
Wavosaur (http://www.wavosaur.com/download.php) provides dozens of functions for editing WAV and MP3 files. You can try this cool audio editing program which will enrich your experience while creating ringtones.
You can record music or drag and drop an existing audio clip. Besides the standard functions, you can add a number of effects; simply use the VST plugin which is freely available on the Web. With this plug-in you’ll be able to use a plethora of effects on your audio clip.
You don’t not need to even install the application. You can simply copy it to your hard drive or USB flash drive and you’re ready to roll—similar to Audacity.
TIP: With the ‘Batch Processor’ tool, you can edit several audio files simultaneously. Simply specify the source of the music files and the destination of the edited files!
Expertise
With the tools and tips in this story, you can create your own MP3 ring tones, edit and trim MP3 tracks, amplify a sound track, add cool effects, create the most irritating alarm ever, and do a lot more depending on how creative you can get.
So go ahead and enjoy the exciting and engaging worlds of sound editing and ringtone composition!
AMPLIFY A MUSIC FILE
Step 1: You can amplify the sound of various audio formats depending on software support.
Audacity would be appropriate for this task. Cool Edit Pro and Sound Forge can be used for relatively advanced tasks. Although, sound amplification isn’t a big deal, we’ve used Cool Edit Pro here. Copy the file to your computer and open it in the software. Open the file and select the entire sound clip by pressing the keys [Ctrl] + [A] (you may select a particular section of the clip).
TIP: When amplifying a file in Audacity, make the selection and click on ‘Effect | Amplify’. Here, increase the dB values while the box ‘Allow Clipping’ is unchecked. This will ensure that you get lossless quality sound. Checking the box will let you amplify the clip further—but doing so will compromise the quality.
TIP: If it’s a WAV file, use Windows Sound Recorder. Open the file, go to the ‘Effect’ option and select ‘Increase Volume’ (by 25%). You may do this multiple times to amplify the sound to suit your needs.
Step 2: Once the clip is selected, go to the menu bar and select ‘Transform | Amplitude | Amplify’. You can select one of the presets from the options on the right pane. We suggest you start with 3 dB boost—higher the number, more the amplification.
Step 3: Once done, save the file and copy it back to the phone and play the amplified file. You may also add different effects to the sound clip and record your own voice and music to enhance the experience with your phone.
Use these simple tips and tools to create a ringtone. But, that’s not all we have! Apart from ringtones, there are other exciting ideas for your phone that await your attention.
When the mobile phone was first invented, the technology it used was pretty basic. It was limited to only voice and text communication. Graduating from being a luxury to a necessity, the technology inside mobile phones also kept developing, Now, every second person in India can be seen carrying a cell phone. Today they are used for communication as well as making a style statement—thanks to the availability of high-tech models.
WAV, MIDI and MP3 are the most commonly compatible formats in phones today. Let’s play around with these audio formats and see how we can create exciting ringtones for your phone.
Clip it!Expandable memory in your phone may let you store larger MP3 or WAV files, but the phone’s internal memory has restrictions. In any case, you can simply slice-n-dice your favorite tracks and put the smaller sized file back into your phone. Let’s check out how we can do this.
For clipping a track, you need an audio editor. If you have used one already, such as Cool Edit Pro or Sound Forge, then you probably have a fair idea. Otherwise, you can download Audacity (3 MB), which is freely available at audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows. Along with this, download the LAME MP3 encoder (152 KB) which helps Audacity to export the clipped file as MP3.
After installing Audacity, open (import) the MP3 file and make the preferred selection in the audio clip. You can do this by dragging the mouse across it, the same way you’d select text in a text editor.
TIP: Click on the magnifier in the tool bar, to help make a precise and specific selection of the music file.
Now, click on ‘Edit | Trim’ ([Ctrl] + [T] is the shortcut) in the menu bar to clip the selection. Listen to the clip and check if it is to your liking. You may exit and return to repeat the procedure if you want to change the beginning and end of the clip.
Once the clip is ready, you can add effects to get a polished ringtone. The first thing that you need to do is ‘Fade-in’ and ‘Fade-out’. Select a small portion at the beginning of the clip and select ‘Effect | Fade-in’, in the menu bar. Repeat the procedure at the end of the clip, but this time, select ‘Effect | Fade-out’.
Now your ringtone is ready for cosmetic changes (optional). You can now choose effects for the ring tone. Add echo, reverb, delay, chorus, or even amplify the sound of the file using ‘Effect’ in the menu bar. The application offers many more options to explore.
Irritating alarm!
If you’re a person who snores right through even the loudest morning alarms, try this one. Well, this kind of project is also pretty irritating and can annoy your friends if you set it as a ring tone. Nonetheless it will certainly wake you up for that urgent meeting you need to attend early in the morning.
Caution: It might not be very pleasant to wake up to this alarm. Although it isn’t too loud, it’s painfully annoying.
Most phones today let you choose the music file you want to use as an alarm. Here you do not need to import a file—we’ll create one from scratch. Start Audacity and select ‘New’, from the file menu. Now, to generate a tone, follow these simple steps.
Select ‘Generate | Tone’ from the menu bar. Here, the default waveform is Sine and the amplitude is 1.00—leave these unchanged. Change the ‘Frequency’ to 5000.00 Hz and in the ‘Length’ (in seconds) field, enter 0.25 and click on ‘Generate tone’. Once the tone is generated, click on the zoom-out button three or four times and then click once at the end of the generated tone (the light-grey area).
Now, we need a bit of silence after the tone so that it can be looped to form one long clip. Select ‘Generate | Silence’, enter the value 0.12 and click on ‘Generate silence’. It will show up as a dark grey area in the timeline.
Half the job is done; now you need to loop the tone and silence to make the audio file for your alarm. Select the entire clip (the blue and dark-grey area). Now select ‘Edit | Copy’ or press [Ctrl] + [C]. Click once after the end point of the clip and paste it using [Ctrl] + [V]. That’s one repetition—you can repeat the loop any number of times; 10 should do fine.
Now save the file by selecting ‘File | Export as MP3’ and save it to the desired location. Transfer the file to your phone and test the sound. If needed, you can amplify the file by a few decibels.
TIP: You can try different combinations of frequencies and timings for the tone and silence. However, frequencies higher than 16500 Hz will barely be audible, since the human ear can’t tolerate such a wide range. If irritation occurs, it is recommended not to listen to the tones at all. This tip is only to show you one of the ways to create high frequency sound.
Not loud enough!
All of us like listening to songs on our mobile phones. Let’s say your favorite track isn’t loud enough in spite of the volume control being at maximum. To amplify the volume of the file you are listening to, refer to the box below and follow the steps. Just be careful not to hurt your ears.
Excellent tool for sound editing
Wavosaur (http://www.wavosaur.com/download.php) provides dozens of functions for editing WAV and MP3 files. You can try this cool audio editing program which will enrich your experience while creating ringtones.
You can record music or drag and drop an existing audio clip. Besides the standard functions, you can add a number of effects; simply use the VST plugin which is freely available on the Web. With this plug-in you’ll be able to use a plethora of effects on your audio clip.
You don’t not need to even install the application. You can simply copy it to your hard drive or USB flash drive and you’re ready to roll—similar to Audacity.
TIP: With the ‘Batch Processor’ tool, you can edit several audio files simultaneously. Simply specify the source of the music files and the destination of the edited files!
Expertise
With the tools and tips in this story, you can create your own MP3 ring tones, edit and trim MP3 tracks, amplify a sound track, add cool effects, create the most irritating alarm ever, and do a lot more depending on how creative you can get.
So go ahead and enjoy the exciting and engaging worlds of sound editing and ringtone composition!
AMPLIFY A MUSIC FILE
Step 1: You can amplify the sound of various audio formats depending on software support.
Audacity would be appropriate for this task. Cool Edit Pro and Sound Forge can be used for relatively advanced tasks. Although, sound amplification isn’t a big deal, we’ve used Cool Edit Pro here. Copy the file to your computer and open it in the software. Open the file and select the entire sound clip by pressing the keys [Ctrl] + [A] (you may select a particular section of the clip).
TIP: When amplifying a file in Audacity, make the selection and click on ‘Effect | Amplify’. Here, increase the dB values while the box ‘Allow Clipping’ is unchecked. This will ensure that you get lossless quality sound. Checking the box will let you amplify the clip further—but doing so will compromise the quality.
TIP: If it’s a WAV file, use Windows Sound Recorder. Open the file, go to the ‘Effect’ option and select ‘Increase Volume’ (by 25%). You may do this multiple times to amplify the sound to suit your needs.
Step 2: Once the clip is selected, go to the menu bar and select ‘Transform | Amplitude | Amplify’. You can select one of the presets from the options on the right pane. We suggest you start with 3 dB boost—higher the number, more the amplification.
Step 3: Once done, save the file and copy it back to the phone and play the amplified file. You may also add different effects to the sound clip and record your own voice and music to enhance the experience with your phone.
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