Is there a software package that will allow me to clip a tiny MP-3 file, say…3-5 seconds long of a song I love- doing this on my computer at home, and make that be the ringer tones for my cellular phone?
Anyone ever done this?
Cartooniverse
Well, first it’ll depend on what model of phone you have. A few phones can use MP3s or WAVs as ringers, but most only use MIDI.
If you have a phone that can play MP3s or WAVs as ringers, there’s definitely software that can upload the files, but the exact program you need depends on your phone. There may not be a free program for some models; you might need to buy a data kit from the manufacturer.
You may also need to convert the file to a format your phone supports. If (as the thread title suggests) this is a song you got from iTunes Music Store, you’ll need to burn it to a CD and rip it back as an MP3 or WAV before you can edit it or do anything useful with it.
On some you can record your own ringtone, so just play the song, press record at the right spot, and you’re done.
If your phone only supports MIDI ringtones, then there are programs available to convert MP3/WAV back to MIDI but none of them are perfect. It’s generally regarded as a Hard Problem™ in Computer Science and would be akin to a human re-writing the score of a piece from a performance. Don’t expect miracles if you go this route. If you have a musically inclined friend who owes you a favour, you could get him to do it manually.
I’ll echo what others have said – depending on your phone, it could be a very simple or very difficult task. In addition to MIDI ringers, QCP ringers are becoming common (basically low-quality, compressed MP3s). Free programs exist to perform a wide variety of converting among formats, and even something as simple as Windows Sound Recorder can help you cut out the parts you want.
From there, you can either use some sort of data cable to upload it to your phone, or upload it to a website that you access on your phone’s minibrowser, and download there appropriately. A lot of that is service-dependent, and in some cases, you may just be out of luck.
Your first step is to find out what kind of ringtones your phone will support. Any late-model phone is pretty much guaranteed to support MIDI ringers (hopefully you’ll have a phone capable of playing polyphonic tones, if you want any sort of resemblence to the actual song) – which are readily availabe, free, all over the web.
If you need any help doing this, I’ve done it quite a bit for a variety of phones, so let me know if you need some help. =)
Wow. I was just trying to do this when I happened across this thread. I was downloading sound effects from a website to use as a ringtone (specifically a diving klaxon), then I connected my phone via IR link. But the files the phone uses are .amr files so the .wav files wouldn’t play. Does anyone know if .amr files are something common. My phone is a Nokia 3200.
If an answer won’t help the OP just consider this a hijack and ignore it.
wnothr, go ahead and ask- hijack away ! Thank you all for the input so far, I will contact Verizon about a data cable and whatnot. It’s a brand new phone, and the ringtones it comes with are polyphonic…
More info as the situation develops. Keep those cards and letters coming ! Anyone had great success doing this already?
The only Verizon phone I know of that supports MP3 ringers is the LG VX6000, but there might be others.
There’s a rumor that the European version of the iTunes Music Store will let you buy ringtones based on the songs they sell, but I think that’s wishful thinking.