How do you make ringtones for your phone using only freeware?

"R.Wieser" news Wed, 07 Nov 2018 08:44:56 GMT in alt.comp.freeware, wrote:

Arlen,

How do you make ringtones on Windows for your phone using only
freeware?
...
12. Audacity:File Export Export Audio myringtone.mp3

Let me get this straight: A ringtone on a Android phone is a
straight forward .MP3, and you have no clue to how to find a
freeware MP3 editor for on a PC ? Really ?

They aren't sure how to do that or, create a ringtone from an already
existing sample without using the 'proper' settings so they don't
harm their android device. rofl.

I'm not sure if the problem is:
o finding ringtones
o setting ringtones
o making ringtones

Right. You are *again* just naming EVERYTHING as being the
possible cause of your problem. No matter how unrelated the
problem fields are.

... A problem which you did not even bother to describe !

In other words: You are *AGAIN* trying to attract someone to tell
you *everything*, effectivily demanding HUGE ammounts of effort
being put into it by them, only so you can pick out the tiny bits
you actually need.

Yep.

How many times do you need to do that - and lose people like
Diesel, who seems to know more about what you are doing that you
will *ever* know - before you realize that that only works for a
short time, making you depend on a steady stream of new
suckers^whelpfull people (a stream which can easily dry up) ?

Based on their posting history I've discovered so far, they consider
usenet to be full of new fish and so aren't concerned with running
out of options.

Yes, I'm still trying to help you - to fish for yourself (give a
hungry man a fish and he will be back tomorrow, again hungry).

I gave a considerable amount of thought to ignoring what they've
previously written, dismissing it as that of an immature child and
continuing with trying to help when reasonable to do so. I applaud
you for you're willingness to continue doing so. I'm not sure that I
will.



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And he disappeared in a puff of logic.

Diesel,

Thanks for the post, I enjoyed reading it. Even if it was just for
"schadenfreude" (yeah, I know. I should not be doing that ... )

And as I have set Arlens messages to go into write-only storage I read the
below for the first time and really LOLed in its literal sense:

If you do not trust that than pick yourself an MP3 editor
which either offers automatic compressing, or has an inbuild
oscilloscope (waveform viewer) where you can look at the waveform
itself - and thus being able to spot where flattens against the
top or bottom.

WTF are you talking about Rudy?

Not understanding what automatic compression might be (about) is one thing.
Not having any idea what an oscilloscope is - and not googeling it, which
was the reason I used the full word instead of the more common 'scope' - is
another thing. But him ranting about how I know absolutily nothing
together with that cracked me up.

Ofcourse, his response to my suggestion to listen for a "tinny sound" was a
good starter for it. He never heard of a volume knob I guess. Or that the
tinny sound happens *way* before actually damaging the speakers ...

That he didn't get that the volume might be already clipping against the
MP3's maximum values and thereby causing the same tinny sound even on low
volumes is forgivable. Even though I did mention the waveform viewer ...

So much for his "years" of "experience" I guess. Though I once read that
even someone having done the same thing day in, day out can boast about it
that way. Even though that someone didn't learn anything to it after the
first couple of days. :-)

I have to wonder though: years of experience, having created 10.000
tutorials at the same time (another of his claims), how did he find the time
to sleep and feed himself, let alone *live* ? It also means he must be,
assuming one tutorial every single working day and starting at age 18, (way)
over 50, but he still sounds like a 12 ...14 year old. How does he do that
? :-)

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

"R.Wieser" news Sat, 10 Nov 2018 09:38:35 GMT in alt.comp.freeware, wrote:

Diesel,

Thanks for the post, I enjoyed reading it. Even if it was just
for "schadenfreude" (yeah, I know. I should not be doing that ...
)

ROFL. I probably shouldn't be either.

Not understanding what automatic compression might be (about) is
one thing. Not having any idea what an oscilloscope is - and not
googeling it, which was the reason I used the full word instead of
the more common 'scope' - is another thing. But him ranting
about how I know absolutily nothing together with that cracked me
up.



Ofcourse, his response to my suggestion to listen for a "tinny
sound" was a good starter for it. He never heard of a volume
knob I guess. Or that the tinny sound happens *way* before
actually damaging the speakers ...

Aahahaha. Seriously though, when's the last time you actually hurt
the speakers because you didn't have enough time to turn the volume
down on a modern piece of gear? It's been awhile, right? LOL
Excluding car amps/conversions guys; let's be fair. [g]

That he didn't get that the volume might be already clipping
against the MP3's maximum values and thereby causing the same
tinny sound even on low volumes is forgivable. Even though I did
mention the waveform viewer ...

That you did. ROFL. Give him a cluebyfour, he just gets a headache.

So much for his "years" of "experience" I guess. Though I once
read that even someone having done the same thing day in, day out
can boast about it that way. Even though that someone didn't
learn anything to it after the first couple of days. :-)

Muahahaha.

I have to wonder though: years of experience, having created
10.000 tutorials at the same time (another of his claims), how did
he find the time to sleep and feed himself, let alone *live* ?
It also means he must be, assuming one tutorial every single
working day and starting at age 18, (way) over 50, but he still
sounds like a 12 ...14 year old. How does he do that ? :-)

Oh man. I just opened that dew... excuse me.. I've a mess to clean
up.



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On Mon, 12 Nov 2018 07:08:48 -0000 (UTC), Diesel wrote:

Muahahaha.

Hi Diesel (and Rudy, and Nil),

Thank you for your intentionally helpful & very useful adult posts.
The amount of technically useful information you impart is astounding.
I'm sure everyone who reads tech details from the likes of you benefit.

In addition to your purposefully helpful technically deep posts, we made
good technical progress with actual commands in Audacity on actual MP3
files discussing actual frequencies going to actual speakers which have
actual specs, etc., in another newsgroup.

For example, we made good technical progress on the frequency cutoffs,
where at the lower frequencies we chop them out entirely at the knee, but
at the higher frequency points, we attenuate slowly.

In addition, those purposefully helpful and competent adult technical
experts advised we "normalize" and correct for dc offset throughout the
trimmed audio, but that we omit some of the other tasks previously
mentioned in the published tutorials.

For all to benefit, as always, from the on-topic tribal tech knowledge,
here are some snippets from that purposefully helpful adult conversation
on another related newsgroup this week.
====
Manufacturers may choose to direct Ringer/Alarm/Notification sounds to
both the loudspeaker and the earpiece speaker, in case one of them is
covered. A few devices feature two loudspeakers to produce some kind of
pseudo stereo - of course only in conjunction with pre-processing
tricks, as the distance of the speakers would be much too small for real
stereo. And it gets even more complicated, if you add in the headphone
jack, bluetooth audio and noise cancelling microphone(s).

This may be the reason why many smartphone SOCs provide discrete
interfaces for the different audio sources and do the distribution and
mixing in hardware.
====
Audacity is certainly a decent choice if you want to use freeware. It is
also available for all major platforms, not only windows.
====
Shouldn't make any difference if you merge channels beforehand or let the
phone's software do the same thing. They need to be merged at some
point, though, as the ringer speaker is almost always mono.
====
You should filter out low frequencies, because they may cause distortion.
Reproduction of high frequencies is usually quite dominant on small
speakers, so you may want to attenuate them to avoid sounding too obtrusive
====
I don't think you need to attenuate loudness. Normally, the phone's
software should limit loudness to a reasonable level.
You may want to normalize loudness, though (& compensate for dc offset).
====
The bitrate does not and never did matter.
Bitrate used to be a compromise between reproduction quality and storage
requirements. In an era, where phones have multiple gigabytes of internal
storage, there is no need to compromise anymore, let alone for a short
sound sample.
====
Yes, the Audacity Trim command's behavior is quite strange. I usually use
Cut, New, Paste instead when I'm happy with the current selection.
====
At least for a stereo track, the phone's software should be able to
handle the stereo to mono mixdown nicely.
However, if you are already in the process of editing the audio, there is
no point in keeping a ringtone in stereo.
====
The ringtone ringer is a completely different audio path in the software
and probably also in parts of the hardware. Which speaker it leads to, is
manufacturer-dependent (but it will likely be the same speaker used for
video and audio, just with different equalization).
====
A small phone speaker will likely not reproduce anything below 200Hz. If
you're lucky, lower frequencies are properly cut off by the phone's
software, if not, they will saturate the amplifier and cause distortion.
====
On the high frequencies, I would not cut them off, just attenuate them
somewhat to get a less obtrusive sound.
====
As for normalizing, basically, it is an automatic gain control, which
results in a similar loudness for all of your files.
====
Manufacturers may choose to direct Ringer/Alarm/Notification sounds to
both the loudspeaker and the earpiece speaker, in case one of them is
covered. A few devices feature two loudspeakers to produce some kind of
pseudo stereo - of course only in conjunction with pre-processing
tricks, as the distance of the speakers would be much too small for real
stereo. And it gets even more complicated, if you add in the headphone
jack, bluetooth audio and noise cancelling microphone(s).

This may be the reason why many smartphone SOCs provide discrete
interfaces for the different audio sources and do the distribution and
mixing in hardware.
====

On 12 Nov 2018, Arlen_Holder wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-10:

In addition to your purposefully helpful technically deep posts,
we made good technical progress with actual commands in Audacity
on actual MP3 files discussing actual frequencies going to actual
speakers which have actual specs, etc., in another newsgroup.

Unnecessary waste of time.

For example, we made good technical progress on the frequency
cutoffs, where at the lower frequencies we chop them out entirely
at the knee, but at the higher frequency points, we attenuate
slowly.

Unnecessary waste of time.


In addition, those purposefully helpful and competent adult
technical experts advised we "normalize" and correct for dc offset
throughout the trimmed audio, but that we omit some of the other
tasks previously mentioned in the published tutorials.

Unnecessary waste of time.


..rest of verbal masturbation deleted..

You're welcome.

Arlen_Holder
news alt.comp.freeware, wrote:

On Mon, 12 Nov 2018 07:08:48 -0000 (UTC), Diesel wrote:

Muahahaha.

Hi Diesel (and Rudy, and Nil),
Thank you for your intentionally helpful & very useful adult
posts.

You're very welcome Arlen.

The amount of technically useful information you impart is
astounding. I'm sure everyone who reads tech details from the
likes of you benefit.

When I share such posts, I'm sure others who have interests along the
same lines as my own do find them useful. Why wouldn't they? I also
realize that my technical or in your case, not even really semi
technical posts are, well, let's be honest here, well above your
paygrade; so what's the point in posting really technical ones to
you?

If you'd like though, I can hunt down a few MIDs of some very
technical posts I'm responsible for authoring, if you want to glaze
your eyes over or allow me to make the point above hit home, harder.

In addition to your purposefully helpful technically deep posts,
we made good technical progress with actual commands in Audacity
on actual MP3 files discussing actual frequencies going to actual
speakers which have actual specs, etc., in another newsgroup.

Who's we Arlen? You didn't contribute anything to the conversation.
Rather, you've taken what you feel are the 'best bits' and sort of,
compiled it into a faq or guide.. oh yea, what you're calling tribal
knowledge. At no time have I seen you credit the authors from which
you copied the material present, though. I guess you think because
it's posted to usenet, it's automatically public domain material?

For example, we made good technical progress on the frequency
cutoffs, where at the lower frequencies we chop them out entirely
at the knee, but at the higher frequency points, we attenuate
slowly.

Arlen, let me ask you something. Have you ever just copied a full
length song that you've played and enjoyed on your PC over to your
phone just to see how it sounds on the phone? Just for ****s and
giggles.. ever done such a **** simple test?

In addition, those purposefully helpful and competent adult
technical experts advised

Of which you are none...

we "normalize" and correct for dc offset
throughout the trimmed audio, but that we omit some of the other
tasks previously mentioned in the published tutorials.

dc offset is what, exactly, preferably in your own words, Arlen?

For all to benefit, as always, from the on-topic tribal tech
knowledge, here are some snippets from that purposefully helpful
adult conversation on another related newsgroup this week.

And there we go. the tribal knowledge file I wrote about above. You
didn't contribute ANY of the material. You harvested it by suckering
(hey, that's infact what you succesfully accomplished) people in the
other newsgroups to give it to you.

[big snip]


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On Mon, 12 Nov 2018 17:27:17 -0500, Nil wrote:

Unnecessary waste of time.

Hi Nil,
You're very special indeed.
What's appreciated, Nil, is that you know all the answers a priori.

Like many on Usenet who know all the answers, you keep them to yourself.
We hoi polloi on Usenet are lucky to have someone like you around to tell
us where we're wrong.

That's why I appreciate your purposefully helpful posts so very much.

Unlike you, all I can do is augment information from the experts:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_making_ringtones_and_ivr_messages.html
for example:
"Using the Effect Compressor will reduce the difference between high and
low volume which allows you to make the ringtone louder overall. This suits
small cellphone speakers which may not be able to handle large changes in
dynamic range. You'll probably want to move the Ratio slider to right of
its default setting of 2:1 to give stronger compression."

"Many phone speakers cannot reproduce very low frequencies so consider
attenuating them (a gradual reduction in the amplitude of the sound level),
especially if you are making a ringtone from an original high quality music
file. On opening Effect Equalization you'll notice a horizontal line at 0
dB, meaning that at that position, no changes are made to the volume of any
frequencies. A curve can be created using the mouse, clicking at various
points above or below the line. For ringtones, bring the line down to -24
dB on the vertical axis for the low frequencies from 30-300 Hz on the
horizontal axis. You may want to increase the lower frequencies from 300 Hz
to say 600 Hz by dragging them above 0 dB, then reduce the highest
frequencies above say 10,000 Hz. This should make the sound somewhat richer
and less "tinny" on a small cellphone speaker by emphasizing the frequency
range it can reproduce best."

In addition, this set of expert advice is not for ringtones specifically,
but for improving all audio recordings (where you, Nil, can ignore this
reference as I'm sure you know everything already).
https://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-process-vocals-for-an-amazing-professional-sound--audio-463

Since I can only hope to impart the immense knowledge you have,
folks may benefit from this Carla Schroder Audacity book
https://isidore.co/calibre/get/PDF/Schroder%2C%20Carla-The%20Book%20of%20Audacity_4172.pdf
where Chapter 10: Making Your Own Ringtones, p195, will be of specific
interest to everyone other than Nil (who already knows everything there is
to know).

On 12 Nov 2018, Arlen_Holder wrote in
alt.comp.os.windows-10:

Like many on Usenet who know all the answers, you keep them to
yourself. We hoi polloi on Usenet are lucky to have someone like
you around to tell us where we're wrong.

I've been recording and processing audio for decades. I'm happy to talk
about it with anybody... except you. I'm really not interested in
helping you jerk off.

On Mon, 12 Nov 2018 23:58:37 -0000 (UTC), Diesel wrote:

At no time have I seen you credit the authors from which
you copied the material present, though. I guess you think because
it's posted to usenet, it's automatically public domain material?

Hi Diesel,
Thanks for that critique of the information I collected & posted
which answer the questions I had asked on how to properly create ringtones
nowadays.

I didn't see any suggestions from you that would add to the technical
steps, so, at this point, you and Nil are the best there is at that.

You did ask personal questions, like who provided that information.
If you really need that author's name, it's "Hergen Lehmann", where his
posts are part of the public record on ringtones that I had copied
faithfully.

Arlen, let me ask you something. Have you ever just copied a full
length song that you've played and enjoyed on your PC over to your
phone just to see how it sounds on the phone? Just for ****s and
giggles.. ever done such a **** simple test?

Hi Diesel,
I'm not sure how your personal questions add to our tribal knowledge on how
to properly create ringtones nowadays. But to answer your questions...

I have many thousands of MP3 songs on both my PC and on my mobile devices.
That means desktops, iPods, iPads, & Android devices have those MP3 songs.

But how many songs I have doesn't change the technical question, which is
how do properly make a ringtone from any one of those songs specifically
for use on the tinny tiny ringtone speakers of a modern mobile device.

Luckily, I Hergen Lehmann and I have answered that question, in detail,
supplying the facts and documents we unearthed, such as this 2011 book
which has an entire chapter (page 195, Chapter 10) on making ringtones:
https://isidore.co/calibre/get/PDF/Schroder%2C%20Carla-The%20Book%20of%20Audacity_4172.pdf

In addition, Diesel, you may benefit (on your sophomoric dc offset
questions, for example), from reading the Audacity manual itself, paying
special attention to the section on how to manage dc offset parameters:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/tutorial_making_ringtones_and_ivr_messages.html

On Mon, 12 Nov 2018 20:14:53 -0500, Nil wrote:

I've been recording and processing audio for decades. I'm happy to talk
about it with anybody... except you. I'm really not interested in
helping you jerk off.

It's truly wonderful that you have so much imaginary knowledge, Nil.

On Tue, 13 Nov 2018 05:00:37 -0000 (UTC), Arlen_Holder wrote:

It's truly wonderful that you have so much imaginary knowledge, Nil.

As an example of the wealth of imaginary knowledge Nil has, this is just
the one section in the aforementioned book on how to properly use the
Audacity TRIM command to cut out a 20-second ringtone from a much longer
MP3 audio file.
https://isidore.co/calibre/get/PDF/Schroder%2C%20Carla-The%20Book%20of%20Audacity_4172.pdf

"If you need to create a ringtone of a specific length, such as 20
to 30 seconds, select a 20- or 30-second portion of the track to use.
Here is a slick trick for precisely measuring your selection length:
Position the Selection tool at the beginning of your clip. Go to the
Selection toolbar, select the 'Length' radio button, make sure
'Snap To' is not checked, and enter how many seconds long you want
your clip to be. If you're a bit shaky with the mouse, you can use
the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the cursor. Figure 10-1
shows how to use this method to create an exactly 20-second clip.
Leaving your clip selected, select Edit Trim (or press CTRL - T )
to cut away the excess."

They don't talk about the need then to use the F5 (Time Shift) command
to slide the beginning of the now-trimmed area to the zero starting point,
but they do go on for an entire chapter of how to properly modify the MP3
so that it conforms to the specs of what a ringtone should technically be.

Nil
Tue, 13 Nov 2018
01:14:53 GMT in alt.comp.freeware, wrote:

On 12 Nov 2018, Arlen_Holder wrote
in alt.comp.os.windows-10:

Like many on Usenet who know all the answers, you keep them to
yourself. We hoi polloi on Usenet are lucky to have someone like
you around to tell us where we're wrong.

I've been recording and processing audio for decades. I'm happy to
talk about it with anybody... except you. I'm really not
interested in helping you jerk off.

I have no doubt that you have a considerable amount more detailed
knowledge concerning those subjects than I have enough time left to
learn. I may, if alright with you ask a question about the subjects
from time to time. Thanks for your consideration either way.

For the purpose of clarification (actually, it's mainly for my own)
when you wrote MID:
"Unnecessary waste of time." in response to several of Arlens
smartass replies to me.. was that in agreement with what I previously
wrote on the subject based on your far longer experience, and, as I'd
expect, superior knowledge on the subject, or, something else
entirely?






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On 13 Nov 2018, Diesel wrote in alt.comp.freewa

I have no doubt that you have a considerable amount more detailed
knowledge concerning those subjects than I have enough time left
to learn. I may, if alright with you ask a question about the
subjects from time to time. Thanks for your consideration either
way.

Sure, if you want. I don't have any special magical knowledge, I've
just been doing it for a long time and learned by trial and error, and
by knowing a few people who know a lot more than I do. It's all
practical knowledge based on experience. I'm a musician with a small
bedroom studio where I record my own stuff, mix other people's music,
and transfer vinyl and tape to digital.

For the purpose of clarification (actually, it's mainly for my
own) when you wrote MID:
"Unnecessary waste of
time." in response to several of Arlens smartass replies to me..
was that in agreement with what I previously wrote on the subject
based on your far longer experience, and, as I'd expect, superior
knowledge on the subject, or, something else entirely?

No, I hadn't read your post yet, but I just did. You're right on all
counts. I usually ignore that dolt's threads, but this one was so
extra-stupid I couldn't resist. I mean, really, what kind of idiot
would over-complicate making a friggin' ringtone? And then write
hundreds of lines of unnecessary, poorly understood, out-of-context,
and just plain wrong "advice" about something that needs a fraction of
that at most? Does he really think anybody will read that crap? It's
all just desperate, self-aggrandizing busy work to keep his hands in
motion and attract attention (not unlike public masturbation.)

To make a ring tone:

1) pick an attention-getting bit of digital music.

2) use an audio editor like Audacity or any of the many tools
specialized for this purpose. Trim out a 10 - 30 second excerpt. Fade
the ends in and out if you want. Most clips need no processing of any
kind unless they are very quiet, in which case you might want to
normalize the clip. No other processing is needed. EQ is unnecessary.
Folding down to mono is unnecessary. Removing DC offset is unnecessary.
You cannot damage a phone with a music file.

3) Save as a medium-quality MP3 or OGG. It's a ringtone for a cell
phone, for God's sake - high audio quality is not the goal or even
desireable.

4) Transfer to your phone using your favorite method.

The End.

On Tue, 13 Nov 2018 15:51:27 -0500, Nil wrote:

To make a ring tone:

1) pick an attention-getting bit of digital music.

2) use an audio editor like Audacity or any of the many tools
specialized for this purpose. Trim out a 10 - 30 second excerpt. Fade
the ends in and out if you want. Most clips need no processing of any
kind unless they are very quiet, in which case you might want to
normalize the clip. No other processing is needed. EQ is unnecessary.
Folding down to mono is unnecessary. Removing DC offset is unnecessary.
You cannot damage a phone with a music file.

3) Save as a medium-quality MP3 or OGG. It's a ringtone for a cell
phone, for God's sake - high audio quality is not the goal or even
desireable.

4) Transfer to your phone using your favorite method.

Thanks for posting that humorous description, which is exactly what I would
have expected from you, Nil.

The great thing about people like you, Nil, (of which there are many on
Usenet), is that your vast imaginary knowledge is overwhelmingly empty when
it comes time to actually state anything of use to anyone else.

What you wrote above, _everyone_ knew a decade ago.
A child could easily have written what you wrote, Nil.

Hint: There's actually more to flying an airplane than just wiggling the
controls, where, for you, the instruction manual is (a) take off (b) fly
around, and then (c) land, if the instructions are to be useful.

Showed up again? Another Plonk!