Suzanne, there are a number of apps available to create ringtones but I think the easiest way to do it is to use iTunes. Since Sieghard Weitzel is away now, I'm going to post below one of his earlier messages with excellent instructions on how to create ringtones using iTunes for Windows. I'll add that you should also be able to use it to create other notification alerts such as for new messages or new emails, etc. but realize that the length limit on those alerts is 5 seconds I believe.
Here is Sieghard's earlier message: From: Sieghard Weitzel <[email protected]> Date: Fri, 6 Dec 2013 09:53:29 -0800 Subject: Creating Ringtones with iTunes, was: help with creating ringtone from iPhone music library To: [email protected] Hi Jerry, I am making the following assumptions: 1. You are using Windows 7 2. You installed iTunes using default settings 3. For my example I assume your Windows user name is Jerry. If the above is true, your Tones folder is located in the following location: C:\users\jerry\music\iTunes\iTunes Media You should have the Automatically Add to iTunes folder here and, if you have Music and Apps synced to your computer there should also be a folder called Mobile Applications" and "Music". If you ever bought a Movie or TV Show on iTunes you would also have a "Movies" and "TV Shows" folder and you would have an "Audio Books" folder if you ever bought an Audio Book from iTunes. Keep in mind that any of these folders will only be created and only show up if they are required. The Tones folder may not be there if you have never bought any ringtones or if you never synced tones via iTunes. You can create a folder manually and call it Tones or Ringtones and then put any ringtones you have in it or you could just copy the tones you have into the Automatically Add to iTunes folder, then open iTunes and iTunes will create a Tones folder and move the ringtones from the Automatically Add to iTunes folder into the Tones folder and at the same time import them into your Tones library in iTunes. You must also understand that manually putting media into any of these folders does not mean it's automatically in the appropriate library in iTunes. If, for example, you copy songs into the music subfolder, you have to still go to "File" and "Add Folder to Library", then browse to the Music folder in iTunes Media and press Select in order for the songs you put in it to get added to your library. If it's only one song or tone, you could also go into the music or Tones folder and press enter on the item you want to add. If you don't have iTunes already open this should open iTunes and play it and doing this will add it to your library. As far as creating ringtones, you can create ringtones using any program you want, but the program has to be capable to either save the tone in the iTunes ringtone format which has the extension M4R or at least save it in "AAC" format which is the iTunes music format and which has the extension M4A. If you can save in M4A, you have to then manually change the extension to M4R and it will work. I assume you know how to rename a file in Windows, keep in mind that in order to change a file extension you may have to go to "Tools" and "Folder Options" in Windows Explorer, Control+Tab to the "View" tab and then find the item "Hide Extension for Known File Types" and turn it off, by default this should be on. Only after you turn this off you can edit/rename the file with the M4R extension. If you use Soundforge and it can only save ringtones in MP3, you would have to import the MP3 ringtone into your iTunes library as music, then find it, right click on it and select the option "Create AAC Version". This would create an M4A version of the MP3 ringtone, you have to find it in your Music subfolder in the iTunes Media folder, rename it with the M4R extension and then Cut and Paste it, into the Tones Folder, lastly press enter on it to play/add it to your library. Also make sure any ringtones you create are no more than 40 seconds in length, otherwise they won't work. Finally, below are instructions I have posted several times over the last couple of years which explain how you can create a ringtone from a song in iTunes using iTunes. Good luck. 1. Find the song you want in your iTunes library 2. Press Control+I for "Get Information", arrow to the options tab, tab to start and end time and set end time to no more than 40 seconds. 3. Right click on your song and select "Create AAC Version" 4. Right click on the newly created 40 second version of the song and select "Show in Windows Explorer" 5. Cut the song with Control+X, then go to your Tones or Ringtones folder in iTunes Media which in turn in in i/tunes which in turn should be in your Music or My Music folder. 6. Paste the song with Control+V 7. Go to the Tools menu of your Windows Explorer window, go to Folder Options and the View tab, make sure "Hide extensions for known file types" is Off. 8. Rename the .M4A extension to M4R. 9. Press enter on the newly renamed file to play it in iTunes, this automatically adds it to your Tones library. 10. Connect your phone, make sure Sync All Tones is selected or if you sync selected tones, make sure your new ringtone is checked, then sync your phone. That's it. Below are the more detailed instructions. This is for Windows, not sure what would be different if you use one of the inferior Mac computers *smile*. Creating Ringtones from songs using iTune for Windows: 1. Find the song you want to make into a ringtone in your Music tab in iTunes. 2. Right click and select "Get Info". Go to the "Options" tab, tab down to "Start Time" and check it by pressing the space bar. Tab again and specify the Start Time. usually you start at the beginning of the song, i.e. 0:00, but if the song starts very slow you may want to find a good spot a few seconds from the beginning where you start the ringtone. tab one more time to go to "Stop Time", check it also and tab to the edit field, specify the Stop Time. This will ensure that iTunes will play the song starting from the specified Start Time to the Stop Time. Make sure that the stop time doesn't exceed the start time by more than 40 seconds which is the maximum length of a ringtone. Click OK. Press enter to play the song, it will only play the part of the song you selected and you can see if it sounds good where it starts and stops. If it stops in the middle of a note or word you can make it a few seconds shorter to find a better place. I usually set the stop time to 39 or 40 seconds and then make it shorter to make it sound good. The start time is displayed as 0:00 where the first 0 means 0 minutes, then a ":" and then the 00 after that is for the seconds. The stop time by default has the ending time of the song, for example 3:23.46 where the first 3 is the number of minutes, then the ":", then the next 2 digits are the seconds and then a "." and the last number or numbers is I guess maybe in one tenth of a second or even one hundreds, not quite sure, but it's a very small increment. Note: Instead of right clicking on the song you can also use the Windows Application Key (some call it the Context menu Key, it's on the right side of the space bar next to the Control key). Even easier is to use the keyboard shortcut "Control+I" and this should work in Windows XP as well as Windows 7. 3. Right click, press the Context Menu Key or press Control+I when you are on the selected song and select "Creat AAC Version from the context menu. Almost immediately you will hear that tri-tone iTunes makes when it's finished doing something. This will create an AAC version of the song for only the section of the song you specified. This new short song will appear right underneath the original song in your list of songs, so you just have to down arrow once to find it. Press enter to play it and to make sure it is as you want it. you can now go back to the original and, in the Options Tab, uncheck the start and stop times so that it will play normally again. Note: If you don't see a "Create AAC Version option when you right click on the song, go to "Edit", "Preferences" and in the General tab click on Import settings, the shortcut is Alt+O. Make sure that the AAC encoder settings are selected, if MP3 is selected as the encoder you have to change it to AAC. I also suggest you check this anyways and make sure you have "iTunes Plus" selected for the quality to make sure you create a good quality ringtone. 4. Select the newly created short AAC version of the song in iTunes and press CTRL+C for "copy". Open your iTunes folder (most likely in "My Music", go to the "iTunes Media" folder and the "Tones" or "Ringtones" folder. Press Control+V to paste the song into the Ringtones folder. 5. Right click on the file and select rename or press the shortcut which is F2. Change the extention for the file which will be .M4A to .M4R. Confirm that you want to rename the file. Note: If you press F2 and don't see the extention, go to "Tools" and "Folder Option". On the "View Tab" turn off "Hide Extentions for known file types". You can turn it back on after you are done creating your ringtones. 6. After you have renamed the song with the .M4R extention, press Enter on the song which will start playing your new ringtones in iTunes. This step is important because by playing it, the tone will automatically be added to your Tones library. 7. Go back to the Music Library, find the short version of the song you created and press delete, when prompted select "Move to recycle bin". This is OK because you already moved the ringtone to the Ringtones folder and no longer need this copy of it. 8. Sync your iPhone with iTunes and your new ringtone will be available. Note: If you have "Sync selected ringtones" turned on, you first have to go to your phone under Devices, tab to the Tones tab, check it and then check the ringtone you created in the list of ringtones before it will sync to your phone. 10. Just as a tip, I usually rename all my ringtones in the Tones Library and put a "Custom -" in front of the song title. This does not rename the actual physical copy on your hard drive, but this way all your custom ringtones are grouped together when you look for them on the iPhone. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. Post a new message to VIPhone by emailing [email protected]. Search and view the VIPhone archives by visiting http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. Reach the VIPhone owner and moderators by emailing [email protected]. Unsubscribe and leave VIPhone by emailing [email protected]. More VIPhone group options can be found by visiting http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Suzanne Wilson Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2014 6:04 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Accessible Ringtone Maker Hello, I would like to make ringtones from songs in my iTunes library. Is there an easy and accessible way to do this? Thanks in advance for any help. Suzanne -- The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. The archives for this list can be searched at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
