Archive for the ‘Announcements’ Category

The Buzz on Ringtones – July 2010

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Researchers at a university in Germany have established that the human brain is wired to hear familiar sounds, such as your cell phone’s ringtone, much faster than it hears other sounds.

The study, which was conducted by researchers at the University of Leipzig, involved a group of volunteers who had their neural activity monitored. While electrodes were attached to their scalps, the group heard the recorded text message alert tones and ringtones of all the volunteers in the group, including their own.

The New Scientist reports that that there were three different trials. During the first trial, volunteers heard the tones while watching a muted, subtitled film. During the next trial, they were once again played all the tones. This time, there was no movie or subtitles to distract them and they had to push a button whenever they heard their own tone. For the third and final trial, the volunteers were asked to select a ringtone belonging to another volunteer.

The trials indicated that those areas in the brain that are linked to memory retrieval and hearing lit up whenever participants heard their own ringtone or the one they were assigned. But even though they also heard the assigned tone much faster than other ringtones, more neurons were active when hearing their own tones.

The researchers concluded that the human brain stores templates enabling it – and therefore us – to quickly identify and pick out familiar tones.

Of course, if you have also joined the rest of the world in downloading the vuvuzela ringtone mentioned in our previous column, neither you nor your brain’s neurons are going to have a moment’s rest.

However, if you want a unique and distinctive ringtone on your phone, there are many places offering you the opportunity to create and download a custom, easily recognisable tone.

One such place is Peternalove.com. The California-based company specialises in products that “help pet owners celebrate the love of their pets”.

The company has teamed up with an award-winning songwriter and producer Alice Leon to create special pet ringtones. It all began as a bit of fun when Alice used her iPod to record her dog Lucy’s bark. Alice then composed a special ringtone featuring Lucy barking along to a song. “I thought it would be cool and very funny to have my cell phone go off and hear her voice during the day,” Alice says. “My phone is ringing all the time and it really cracks people up and brings a smile to my face.”

Alice’s “barking ringtone” became such a hit that Peternalove.com now offers custom-made versions for sale exclusively via the site. If you want your own beloved Fido barking along to your ringtone, you simply go to the site, answer some specific questions about your pet’s personality, choose a pre-recorded musical style – such as jazz, classic rock, country, disco, or R&B – and add a recording of Fido barking. Alice then writes completely original lyrics based on the answers you gave about your pet’s personality, combines them with the chosen musical style and bark, and the finished ringtone is then sent directly to the customer’s cell phone.

As with any ringtone, this one also carries the risk of driving some people barking mad. But hey, this service is not just for the dogs. All the different pet species are welcome to lend their voices to a ringtone. If you can get your cat to meow into your computer’s mic, or record the horse whinnying… well, you get the idea!

At least your brain will instantly recognise your unique pet ringtone!

The Buzz on Ringtones June 2010

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

What has become the unofficial soundtrack of the 2010 FIFA World Cup has now also spilled over to cellphones worldwide… and we’re not referring to the lively hit song “Waka Waka” which is performed by Shakira and features beloved South African band Freshlyground.

No, we are talking about that thing that has – quite literally – been on everyone’s lips: the vuvuzela.

The metre-long, colourful, plastic South African “instrument”, which makes an ear-splittingly loud, monotonous sound when blown on it, has become a fixture among spectators attending the live matches of the globally broadcasted tournament. The vuvuzela’s prominent presence at the matches has made it soar to world fame (or infamy, depending on your point of view) almost overnight.

However, despite its renown, not everyone has embraced the vuvuzela and its rather unique sound. Many viewers, who have been watching televised broadcasts of the World Cup matches, have complained to television networks, demanding that the sound of the vuvuzela somehow be muted from the broadcasts as it drowns out the match commentary.

Those who hate the sound so much that they have muted the matches on their television sets will probably not be pleased to hear that sound coming from a ringing cell phone. And they are bound to hear it, no matter where they are in the world, because the much maligned and loathed sound has now become the number one free mobile ringtone application in the world.

A Dutch app developer, called moblio.nl, has been raking in advertising revenue after turning the distinct sound of the vuvuzela into a free ringtone app. Called Vuvuzela 2010, it has been scoring high on the ringtone charts in the UK, Germany, France, South Africa, Argentina, Japan, Australia and even reaching number 3 in the USA.

Towards the end of June, the Vuvuzela 2010 app had been downloaded more than 3.5 million times and it has shown continued growth across the world. As if that isn’t bad enough for the vuvuzela haters, its fans now have another reason to toot the horn.

Caller Ringtones

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007

I’m busy researching caller ringtones, it seems quite interesting and I’ll be making some posts about that in the near future. If you’re looking for Celcom caller ringtones, this might just be the place as I’ll be basing my research on celcom caller ringers.

Ringtones on 3thon

Wednesday, January 10th, 2007

This keeps on popping up, ringtones on 3thon and I have absolutely no idea what it’s about. If anyone can tell me what 3thon ringtones are I’d really appreciate it! In the meanwhile, I’ve fixed up the forum, it was all spammed out, so if you can’t find anything there, please register again and post your questions about ringtone production or about the other topics within the ringtone production forum.

New Free Samsung A920 Wallpapers

Wednesday, November 15th, 2006

I’ve loaded some A920 wallpapers into the forum wallpaper section. Check it out now and load some of your own! If you have the need for wallpapers in another size, just start a thread with ‘

wallpapers’ as subject.

How to make your own midis

Sunday, November 5th, 2006

I’ve got a new upcoming tutorial on the cards on how to make your own midi ringtones. I’ll be using totally free software, so you’ll be able to replicate everything yourself. There are some really cool stuff you can do with midi, but it becomes technical quite quickly when you start doing advanced stuff. I’ll try and keep it simple though :-) Maybe in future I’ll do a follow up tutorial for experienced users! Remember to register in the forum and I’ll send out a broadcast when the tutorial is up!

AMR ringtone tutorial series

Thursday, March 30th, 2006

I’m planning a full series of tutorials (about 3 tutorials) on the Nokia AMR ringtone format. What you can expect is how to produce AMR ringtones and how to get them onto your Nokia phone. I will also touch on the subject of network specific ringtones and how that affects the loading of tones on your Nokia phone.

Subjects:

  1. Introduction to Nokia AMR
  2. How to produce quality AMR ringtones
  3. Loading AMR ringtones to your phone

Bookmark now (CTRL-D) and check back within the next week for the first tutorial. I will also open a discussion thread in the ringtone production forum where you can discuss the tutorials.

Welcome Ringtone Producers!

Tuesday, January 31st, 2006

Welcome to Ringtone Producer. We are affiliated with Free Ringtone Downloads blog and the new home of Ringtone Production & Conversions. Check back regularly for the latest tutorials on how to produce your own ringtones and to download free ringtones created by our users. Please register on our ringtone production forum and introduce yourself!!