HOWTO: Never Pay For Ringtones
You don't want to buy ringtones. I can't blame you. Most of the ones you can buy through your phone are way overpriced and suck it hard. If you order some from one of those annoying tv commercials, you'll pay about 30 bucks a month for the privilege of hearing Kanye West when someone calls you. So what else can you do?
You can stick it to the man - and I'll show you how.
As you all know, I got a new phone with Verizon; I like it, it's simple yet sophisticated. What I don't like are the shit ass ringtones that come with my phone. Who wants to here Beethoven when your friends call? I believe you could get your ass kicked for doing something like that. I need AC/DC, Tenacious D, and Silvertide not The Entertainer.
So, here's how you make a ringtone from your own music and get it on your phone, without the pain of having to bend over to buy it.
Step One
Pick out an mp3 and the part of the song you want to use for your ringtone (duh). Load this mp3 file into any sound editor. (If you aren't familiar with sound editing very much , use Nero Wave Editor, it comes with a lot of cd burners. I use Adobe Audition.) Trim the mp3 to just the part you want to be your ringer, make it no more than 30 seconds.
Step Two (Optional)
If you are comfortable with sound editing, go into the Edit menu and select Convert Sample Type. By default, your file is probably at 44100hz. Sample this to a lower preset value, and also select Mono. Doing this will provide for less distortion when the ringer is on your phone, but you probably won't notice if you don't do it (I'm neurotic, so I notice and fix these things).
Step Three
Save your file as a .wav. Simple enough.
Step Four
Download this simple file and unzip the folder.
Step Five
Run wscma2u.exe from this folder. It will simply tell you to drag your .wav file into the box. It will ask for the name you want the new file to be - make it anything you want without spaces. Click through and close this program. A new file will appear in the folder - yourtitle.mmf "whateveryounamedit.mmf"
Step Six (Important!)
Rename the .mmf on this file to .mid
(If you can't view these file extensions, go to control panel --> folder options and turn on view file extensions)
Step Seven
Send it to your phone. Fire up your Gmail, Yahoo, whatever, and compose a new email. Attach the .mid file you just made. Here is where you are going to send it to
EDIT: I have heard of one person who could not get the ringtone to play correctly when emailing it, everyone else has been able to email it fine. Your mileage may vary.
Step Eight
Twiddle your thumbs for about 5 minutes until the
message comes. When it does, open it up, list to its sweet goodness, and then click apply as ringtone.
If you are completely computer illiterate, I'm told smashthetones.com will do this grunt work for you for for free as well, but I haven't bothered to check them out.
Well that about covers it. I know Latimer wanted me to post this stuff so maybe the rest of you can get some use out of it too.
Also, these tunes you create will work on your phone even if it does not have mp3 player capabilities. Give it a shot, worst that happens is you are out a quarter.
Next up, I'll be killing my old phone and posting pics here up of it.
You can stick it to the man - and I'll show you how.
As you all know, I got a new phone with Verizon; I like it, it's simple yet sophisticated. What I don't like are the shit ass ringtones that come with my phone. Who wants to here Beethoven when your friends call? I believe you could get your ass kicked for doing something like that. I need AC/DC, Tenacious D, and Silvertide not The Entertainer.
So, here's how you make a ringtone from your own music and get it on your phone, without the pain of having to bend over to buy it.
Step One
Pick out an mp3 and the part of the song you want to use for your ringtone (duh). Load this mp3 file into any sound editor. (If you aren't familiar with sound editing very much , use Nero Wave Editor, it comes with a lot of cd burners. I use Adobe Audition.) Trim the mp3 to just the part you want to be your ringer, make it no more than 30 seconds.
Step Two (Optional)
If you are comfortable with sound editing, go into the Edit menu and select Convert Sample Type. By default, your file is probably at 44100hz. Sample this to a lower preset value, and also select Mono. Doing this will provide for less distortion when the ringer is on your phone, but you probably won't notice if you don't do it (I'm neurotic, so I notice and fix these things).
Step Three
Save your file as a .wav. Simple enough.
Step Four
Download this simple file and unzip the folder.
Step Five
Run wscma2u.exe from this folder. It will simply tell you to drag your .wav file into the box. It will ask for the name you want the new file to be - make it anything you want without spaces. Click through and close this program. A new file will appear in the folder - yourtitle.mmf "whateveryounamedit.mmf"
Step Six (Important!)
Rename the .mmf on this file to .mid
(If you can't view these file extensions, go to control panel --> folder options and turn on view file extensions)
Step Seven
Send it to your phone. Fire up your Gmail, Yahoo, whatever, and compose a new email. Attach the .mid file you just made. Here is where you are going to send it to
- If you are on Verizon Wireless, send the email to xxxxxxxxxx@vzwpix.com
- If you are on Cingular, send the email to xxxxxxxxxx@mms.mycingular.com
- If you are on Alltel (God help you), send it to xxxxxxxxxx@message.alltel.com (i think)
- If you are on Sprint, send it to xxxxxxxxxx@messaging.sprintpcs.com
- If you are on T-Mobile, send to xxxxxxxxxx@tmomail.net
EDIT: I have heard of one person who could not get the ringtone to play correctly when emailing it, everyone else has been able to email it fine. Your mileage may vary.
Step Eight
Twiddle your thumbs for about 5 minutes until the
message comes. When it does, open it up, list to its sweet goodness, and then click apply as ringtone.
If you are completely computer illiterate, I'm told smashthetones.com will do this grunt work for you for for free as well, but I haven't bothered to check them out.
Well that about covers it. I know Latimer wanted me to post this stuff so maybe the rest of you can get some use out of it too.
Also, these tunes you create will work on your phone even if it does not have mp3 player capabilities. Give it a shot, worst that happens is you are out a quarter.
Next up, I'll be killing my old phone and posting pics here up of it.
