A ringtone is a digital audio file that was developed exclusively for cell phones, smartphones, and other portable devices. When you get a call on your cell phone, you can play the sound of your personal ringtone on a regular landline phone just like your mother or grandmother did. Ringtones are useful today because you can tag any person with a specific music or tone - just by listening will you know who is calling you!
Ringtones were originally included in cell phones so that users could change the tone of an incoming call on their phone. The user can adjust some settings to change the sound, but only a limited number of preset sounds are available at the time of purchase. In 1998, Vesa-Matti “Vesku” Paananen had the idea of starting a ringer business. Today, users can download many different ringtones to customize their phone's factory settings.
The different ringtones
Ringtones have gone through many changes over the years, from simple chord progressions to actual recordings. Today there are three different types of ringtones:
The first sound produced was monophonic. Monophony, as the name suggests, allows you to play only one song (or note) at a time. Hence, monophonic ringtones are the simplest and most popular form available.
Polyphonic ringtones are the third type of ringtones in which multiple notes and instruments are played at the same time. The key chosen should represent the sound and mood of the song. Instead of choosing a ringtone at random, it is better to choose a ringtone that goes with the song. The first type of ringtone was constructed using MIDI (a communication protocol between computers and electronic musical instruments), which enables computers and electronic musical devices to communicate with each other. Polyphonic ringtones have taken a big step forward in technology, with the ability to use sound banks (or SoundFonts) - which significantly increases the quality of the sound by borrowing synthetic data that tries to
This is the sound recorded in its real environment. It is usually saved in a popular digital audio format such as MP3 or AAC. It is therefore possible for everyone to easily create their own personal ringtones with the digital music library.
Several different audio file types are supported by real tones.
For real tones, the most commonly used audio formats are:
The MP3 file extension, the most popular format on smartphones. MP3 files can be found in various places.
Therefore, they are not compatible with applications that use the AAC format. The extension of Realtones files in this format is .m4a or .m4r, which indicates that they are from an iPhone (or other non-Apple phone).
This audio codec supports the following formats: AAC, AMR, FLAC, MP3 (Pro version only), OGG Vorbis (Android OS). This container format uses the file extension .OGG.
The headphones are made by Dolby.
Many people today prefer to produce their own ringtones rather than uploading them to online ringtone sites that often charge for the file. Many people today prefer to produce their own ringtones rather than downloading them from ringtone websites that often charge for the file, you can get free ringtones (or even create your own) in a number of ways. Here are some alternatives for you to do so:
There are a variety of websites that offer free ringtones for cell phones, including movies, games, software, and other merchandise. However, many websites offer illegal downloads. nFor more information on websites that offer real ringtones for cellphones, please see our guide to the best free ringtone sites.
In this way, media player software can turn your music collection into ringtones. This technique can even be used by iTunes with a little hack. If you want to learn how to make free ringtones for your iPhone, check out our guide on how to make your own free ringtones .
You can create a short loop of a song using a free audio editor, which is great for ringtones. This type of software is often capable of recording in a wide variety of audio codecs that are supported by most smartphones. Our Audacity tutorial shows you how to make ringtones with Audacity.
If you don't want to use a full-featured audio editor, an audio splitter is a viable alternative. This type of program can be used to quickly create ringtones from your current music collection and is sometimes called an MP3 splitter.