Ringtone Producer

There are several ringtone composers (gsm kompozitor) out there are the moment. Your best bet is a Midi application if you want to do multichannel midi ringtones. BUT these days most phones can play audio files like MP3 or WAV, so more advanced software like Fruityloops Studio, Sony Acid Pro etc. Now yes I know you don’t need the pro versions of these software, so if you’re just an average user looking to make cool ringtones, check out the lighter versions of those software.

As long as you’re able to combine multiple tracks of loops and samples into one cool ringtone, you’re a for away. There are of course some commercial ringtone producing software out there, but I’ve found that good old Fruityloops gives you ample more options than clunky.

Now Sony and Image-Line, give me some software, so I can run a range of tutorials on developing ringtones from your applications!!  I’m open for sponsorship deals!

Ringtones are quite a powerful tool for pre-releasing new material to the public. I’m talking about bands of course. I’m seeing it all the time and it adds a revenue stream for the band as well. I actually think that normal ringtones will make place for full songs and all cellphones will pretty much be able to work like your standard iPod (enters the iPhone).

iPhone is somewhat of a logical upgrade on the iPod. It’s teen heaven. They can listen to music, and chat to friends. As far as ringtones are concerned, the age old problem of digital rights management still looms and the fact that MP3 is still a problem. The problem with this problem though is the high demand for MP3’s.

Will there ever be a proper solution to this? I think Apple’s getting it pretty much right at the moment. I’m looking forward to seeing what their competitors do to counter this technology. I’ve seen many DJ-Scratching phones, walkman type phones with larger memory etc, but battery power seems to be a problem.

Lets get some popcorn and see what happens!

Found a free new service for converting realtones (voice ringtones). Check out Cellsea online. You upload, convert, decide on the part of the file you want to use as ringtone and then download via WAP. Looks like a nice service.

I’m not sure why I haven’t come accross Media Convert before, but it’s a really, really cool tool, online with which you can create midis and convert your sound files to various ringtone formats - for free! Now before you go and convert entire song mp3’s, remember that it’s an online service, so larger files don’t work that well, except if you’re on broadband. Not only does it convert sound, it also allows for various conversions of documents, spreadsheets, video and more, plus it has a nifty WAP upload server for beaming directly to your phone! It’s almost too good to be true! But to test the mettle, I’m going to do this first midi tutorial on their midi sequencer. Yes, that’s right, they’ve got a free online midi sequencer. Simple, yet effective.

Now to start off with, open up the Media Convert link above (it’ll open a new window) and browse to the midi sequencer.

Just some setup information

The sequencer track has 16 notes. The 1st, 5th, 9th and 13th notes are your main beat steps. You can play around with offbeat high hats etc or make a 16 beat track by selecting the closed hi-hat and clicking all sequencing notes on to the right. I’ve chosen to make a 4 pattern loop, just using the first pattern (the default is 1,1,1,1 anyway).
Lets start

1. In the drum editor, check the first drum channel to ‘on’. Then select 036 Bass Drum as instrument.
2. Click the 1st, 5th, 9th and 13th notes on.
3. You can play around with effects etc, I just left it default for now.
4. Check the second drum instrument channel to ‘on’.
5. Select 039 Hand Clap as instrument and click the 5th and 13th notes on.
6. Check the 3rd drum channel to ‘on’.
7. Select 042 Closed Hi-Hat as instrument and play around with some different sequences.
8. I chose to check on step 3, 7, 8, 11, 15 and 16, giving a bit of funky house effect.

Now to get to instruments. Midi uses 128 standard instruments. On your phone it might sound a bit different since the tone generator is of a different variety than your computer, but essentially it’s still the same instruments.

Quick Tip: To save backups of your song, just click play (to effect changes) and then Download Song (the link will appear after you clicked play). My songs didn’t play online (think it’s quicktime that tried to take over), but I was able to download it and listen in Media Player.

Back to the Instrument Editor

1. Check the first 2 instrument channels on.
2. Select 016 Hammond Organ in the first and 065 Alto Sax in the second instrument channel.
3. Check on step 3, 7, 11 and 15 for an offbeat bass sound, you can also select a bass instrument, but remember it’s for your cell, so better to use instrument with a range that you will hear on your phone. I used note E2 for alll of them.
4. In the Alto Sax channel, select E3 on step 3, 15 and 16. This creates a funk element to the loop.

Note: You’re working in octaves, so a higher octave will have a higher number.

That’s it! Your first midi sequence.

To elaborate and make different patterns, just copy the existing pattern to pattern 2 and change some of the notes. Usually you’d leave the drums the same, but here and there you can add a percussion shot or crash symbol. Enjoy playing around! You can download the midi loop sample I created on the Free Ringtone Download page.

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In this final article on the series of AMR production tutorials I’ll explain how to load ringtones onto your phone. There are various methods which will be discussed below.

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I get allot of requests for a tutorial on how to edit midi files to reduce file size, channels etc so that you can use them as ringtones.

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What is YG24? Well it’s my term for the opposite of Parental Guidance (PG), named Youth Guidance and means only for under 24’s! Funny enough it was designed to repel teen troublemakers and the response has been phenominally opposite. The Wyvern Theatre in Wiltshire installed audio equipment to play the sound around their square at night to repel the troubled youths. Little did they know… The reason for this is because it is claimed that only young people can actually hear the ringtone, meaning that students and schoolgoers are using it in class because their lecturers can’t hear it!

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At long last the second tutorial in the AMR ringtone production series.

First of all, you’re going to need the following software. You need some kind of audio editor, in order to tweak volume and loop your ringtones properly. I’m using Sound Forge 7. Then you will need software to convert your tones to AMR format and I’m using Nokia Multimedia Converter 2 for that.

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The Nokia AMR ringtone format has evolved since the new multimedia driven phones have hit the market. AMR stands for “Adaptive Multi-Rate“. There are two versions of AMR ringtones. One is called AMR and the other is called AMR-WB, which stands for “Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband“. The wideband ringtones are of higher quality (16kHz as apposed to 8kHz).

All this jargon doesn’t really affect the end-user as long as you know which tools you should use to create your ringtone.

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