Can't use songs as ringtones

Hi,
I've seen that there are already a few threads about this, and several film-clips on YouTube, but I've already checked those out...

I have a new iPhone 3G, version 2.0, and I'd like to know how to import ringtones to it that I haven't boght from the iTunes Store.

I've tried some stuff I read about on the internet; cutting out the part of a song I'd like to use (29 seconds), converted it to AAC (.m4a) and then manually changed the file-ending from .m4a to .m4r.

I had previously checked a box in the iTunes Preferences saying "Show Ringtones" or something similar...
After that I opened the new file in iTunes, and expected it to show up under the "Ringtones" tab instead of under the "Music" tab, but it didn't.

I couldn't drag it from the one tab to the another either...

Use MakeiPhoneRingtone.

lifeisabeach said:

Use MakeiPhoneRingtone.

Click to expand...

Is it that hard to use Garage Band? Considering you have a Mac of course. I make ringtones on there in less than a minute.

SurfWax88 said:

Is it that hard to use Garage Band? Considering you have a Mac of course. I make ringtones on there in less than a minute.

Click to expand...

It appears you don't even know what MakeiPhoneRingtone does. It's even simpler to use MiPR to import already-made ringtones that iTunes doesn't recognize. Speaking for myself... I have a package of studio-made ringtones that I can import in seconds using MiPR. If I was to use GarageBand, I'd have to import/edit each one individually, and likely with some fidelity loss.

Not to mention one has to have/buy iLife to get the version of GarageBand that supports ringtone editing/importing. MiPR is free and is all you need if you are simply importing.

EDIT: of course, dopey me just realized the OP needed to edit some songs also to make his ringtones. I wasn't paying close enough attention, it seems. LOL!

You totally went over my head with that lol, where do you get already made iPhone ringtones? I just use Garageband to snip songs i download to ringtones and import them, and I didnt buy iLife 08. I just bought the newest updated macbook in march and it had the new iLife on their. I already had garageband on my imac but it wasnt the new one so there was no option to import the ringtones. The new garageband (if you get your hands on it) is extremely easy to use, 'imo'. But id like to know anyway where you find premade ringtones.

SurfWax88 said:

You totally went over my head with that lol, where do you get already made iPhone ringtones? I just use Garageband to snip songs i download to ringtones and import them, and I didnt buy iLife 08. I just bought the newest updated macbook in march and it had the new iLife on their. I already had garageband on my imac but it wasnt the new one so there was no option to import the ringtones. The new garageband (if you get your hands on it) is extremely easy to use, 'imo'. But id like to know anyway where you find premade ringtones.

Click to expand...

Are ya kidding? The internet is littered with ringtone downloads. One pack I have is called the Business Professional Ringtone Collection. There's several formats of each tone, depending on what one's phone supports (wav, mp3, etc). Since the iPhone's m4r isn't one of the supported formats, I used MakeiPhoneRingtone to import them. These are all studio-produced tones. They are NOT music clips (I generally don't care much for music-clip tones). Some of the ones in this set are pretty nifty. There's a few with computer-like voiceovers. The tone makes a sound like someone is being paged, then you get a voice saying "You have an incoming business call" (or something to that effect). Lots of variations. Different sound effects. Some are really awful, others strange, but there's still quite a few of them I like and use regularly. You can download a demo of what the pack contains. Bear in mind there are lots more packs from other sources... you just gotta hunt for them.

Oh yes... there is this relatively new ringtone subscription service for the iPhone that is kinda neat called Ringtone Feeder. You get the weekly releases via a Podcast. These are all studio-produced by a professional musician who started up this venture. I subscribed within a couple weeks of it starting up so I have all the tones he's made to date. Quite frankly, a lot of them with him "singing" sound too much like advertising jingles, but a couple of the instrumental-only ones he's done have become among my favorites. It's a relatively new service, but it's picking up speed. He hopes to sign on new talent to shake up the offerings.

Allright, thank you very much, but I really have no idea of how to use GarageBand ^^
Maybe someone could give me a very brief tutorial of how to do what is needed to make a ringtone out of a song...?

I got stuck right at the start of it, I couldn't even open the song I chose in GarageBand for some reason... When I pressed "Open..." in GB and browsed for the song it was all matte-gray like and I couldn't click it...

DeclinedShadow said:

Allright, thank you very much, but I really have no idea of how to use GarageBand ^^
Maybe someone could give me a very brief tutorial of how to do what is needed to make a ringtone out of a song...?

I got stuck right at the start of it, I couldn't even open the song I chose in GarageBand for some reason... When I pressed "Open..." in GB and browsed for the song it was all matte-gray like and I couldn't click it...

Click to expand...

I'd love such a tutorial as well.

I am SO loving MakeiPhoeRingtone.app at this point. Thanks for the sharing it!

lifeisabeach said:

Use MakeiPhoneRingtone.

Click to expand...

OK, I downloaded this... is there a way to make AAC files without using Fission? I don't want to pay $32 just to make ringtones.

imrahil327 said:

OK, I downloaded this... is there a way to make AAC files without using Fission? I don't want to pay $32 just to make ringtones.

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Um, ya. iTunes.

Sorry, I should've been more specific, and maybe iTunes is still the answer- can iTunes clip songs down to ringtone length (~30 secs)? And how do I change the format of a song within iTunes?

Take the MP3 you want to use, open it in Quicktime, trim it to the part you want (no longer than 40 seconds) then save it as an AIFF file. Import said file to iTunes, set iTunes to import music in AAC format, select the AIFF format 40 second (or less) song in iTunes, right click and select "Convert selection to AAC". Let iTunes convert it, take the resultant file (use "Show in Finder" when right clicking on the newly converted song in iTunes to find it) and drop it on the MakeiPhoneRingtone App and it will convert it and add it to the ringtones section of iTunes for quick uploading to your iPhone.

I did about 30 songs in half and hour yesterday.

Awesome, that's just what I needed. Thanks much!

Do you need Quicktime PRO to do that...it won't let me "save as". And any instructions on how to do it from Garageband would be great. Thanx

I got mine from Myxer.com as they have plenty of FREE downloads and they're an easy transfer into iTunes Ringtones library.

beefman said:

Do you need Quicktime PRO to do that...it won't let me "save as". And any instructions on how to do it from Garageband would be great. Thanx

Click to expand...

Yeah, I had not considered that. I've had QT-Pro for years so I am just used to it. Sorry.

Okay, thanks, I think I might be able to make some ringtones now...

I also heard that if you change the settings in iTunes from "Import to AAC" to "Import to MP3" and then convert any song to .mp3 you can trim it that way if you previously changed the "Start at.." and "Stop at..." times for the song...
Then you could just convert it back to AAC and it should be good, or so it seems...

also a good program to edit is audacity. its free too.

garageband