All models - Tutorial: Make Your Own High Quality FREE Ringtones (as many as you want)
First go to http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ and download Audacity Audio Editor version 1.2.6. It's the latest stable version and I haven't checked the newer ones yet. Next, make a folder on your PC in C:\Program Files called Audacity and move everything associated with Audacity to it. You should also add the LAME library (for making mp3's) to the same folder. You can either search the web for it or you can use a link in the program later on. Note, you do not actually "install" Audacity but rather you "run" it so right-click on the file called Audacity and select Send To > Desktop. This is your shortcut to using the program. The shortcut can also be copied into your Start menu.
Once you've accomplished the opening stuff you're ready to go. Read all the way through the following tutorial before beginning and don't be afraid to use the Undo button in Audacity. I like to use Fade In and Out effects on my ringtones, but the following is just to get you started. Feel free to post kudos if you found this useful or if you hated it;-) Also, feel free to donate to the open-source guys at the Audacity project on their sourceforge page; as you're about to find out, they do good work.
You should be off and away making as many ringtones as you like. Once you have some finished you can email them to your phone (MMS), use Bluetooth or a USB cable to download them directly, or you can load them directly onto a microSD card if your computer has a card reader. There's also a tutorial on how to increase the file limit on Windows Mobile (6.1) based devices such as the LG Incite and HTC Fuze...It's in the LG section. They're limited to 300KB out of the box, but you can change it to 6MB if you like so that you can use higher bitrates (96, 128, and 192). That information is available in other places, but I want to make it easier for everyone than it was for me. If there's any questions about transfering your ringtones to your phone please ask away...I'll do my best to try to help. Also, please keep this thread alive so that people won't need to ask where to get free ringtones anymore. Cheers!
Peeps!! 
caramelangel1 wrote:
I downloaded Audacity, imported mp3 file, but cannot hear the track to know where to delete the part I do not want. What am I missing?
As a possibility i would say turn the speakers on....... but i could be wrong..... also here is a more expanded version of the post above.
2. Open up Audacity.
3. In Audacity, under the file menu, open up the song file that you want to turn into a ringer.
4. When you open it, you'll get a dialogue box like the one in the pic below, telling you that the MP3 is importing (or whatever file format your song is in).
5. Once your song is done importing, you'll get waves, in correlation with the song's frequency, that looks like below.
6. Take the magnifying glass (upper left of Audacity's workspace) and left-click on the waves to expand it, so you can see the detail of where the song changes and all.
7. In this song ("She's the Blade" by Sugarcult), I liked the way it began, so all I had to do was to find where I wanted it to end (if you want to start the song in a different place, use this step, but backwards, deleting everything that you don't want before ((at step 13, you can see how to cross fade out, but choose cross fade in instead, so it starts low and the volume gets higher))).
Anyways, using the "I-beam" selection, click where you want the song to end.
8. You now have where you want the song to start, and you are going to delete everything after that. Select the magnifying glass and right-click the waves until they get small enough so you can see the whole song on the screen (this way you can select the whole song easily, instead of dragging it past the edge of the workspace to select the whole song).
9. Select from where you clicked and drag to the end of the song. One thing to note is that when you click anywhere in the song and let go, you can select that exact point that you chose as long as you place the cursor over the line and it changes from an arrow to a hand. When it's a hand, the point where you selected will not change when you click (try it, it's easier to see than to explain).
10. Push the "Delete" key and everything you highlighted will disappear.
11. Get the magnifying glass and expand the song's waves again.
12. Now, we are going to fade this song out, because I want it to fade out into silence. Find a good area (at the end, obviously) that would sound good to start fading out and highlight from there to the end of the song.
13. In Audacity, go up to "Effect" and scroll down to the bottom and select Cross Fade Out. This will automatically fade your music out.
14. When you select "Cross Fade Out", the area you have selected will "cone out", like the waves below.
15. Go up to the file menu and select "Export As WAV". Be careful not to select "Export Selection As WAV", otherwise it will only export the cross faded out part (unless you have deselected the waves).
16. Choose where you want to save your file.
17. You will get a dialogue box saying that it is exporting your file into a WAV file. Don't worry if you don't see this box, if you see it, that means that your file is big enough that it's taking some time to export (it should only appear for a few seconds, any long and your song's way too big).
18. Close Audacity. You'll get a dialogue box asking if you want to save changes. For some reason Audacity won't let you save as an MP3 and if you tell it to, it won't actually let you save without some workaround, so just tell it no.
19. Now, I have a program called "dbPowerAMP". I like it because when you hover your cursor over a song file, it shows you the properties (as seen below). This will come into importance in a later step.
20. Open up Alive MP3 WAV Converter (or whatever converter you are using) and hit the big "Play" button in the bottom right of the program to open up the "Open" window.
21. If you didn't delete your WAV file, this is where dpPowerAMP comes in handy, as it's most likely that both the WAV file and the MP3 file will have the same name, so you can hover over it and see which is the MP3 file.
22. When you open up your file, you need to change the quality settings of the final result. Personally, I make it a rule of thumb to have the Kbps (Kilobytes per second) double what the KHz (kilohertz) is. You really don't need the KHz any higher than 24. Any higher than that is wasting space. And don't forget, you don't need stereo on your ringers.
23. If you didn't delete the original MP3 (the source file that you used to create the WAV file), you'll get the box below, asking if you want to overwrite it. If you have a copy of the song, then this is fine. However, if you want to save the song, then copy the song somewhere else, and then select yes.
24. In Alive MP3 WAV Converter, in the bottom right of the program, lights will go around the circle as it is converting. The finished product should be no more than 300Kb.
25. Now, the Bluetooth dongle that I got integrates nicely into Windows XP Service Pack 2, so I didn't need to install any extra software. Right-click your song file and go to the "Send To" option and select the "Bluetooth device" option.
26. The following box will pop up. Tell it to browse.
27. It will locate any bluetooth devices around it, with the visibility set as "On".
28. If you have already paired your devices, the next box will show the devices that you have connected (even if their Bluetooth is off, or even if they themselves are off). Select the device that you want to send your new ringer to.
29. Once you confirm on your phone (if your phone needs to confirm file transfers), it will send your ringer over.
30. And you're done! You've made and transfered your own ringtone! :-D
I'll upload the finished product so you can all hear later. The site I upload my stuff is currently undergoing maintainance, so I can't upload it at the moment.
Message Edited by RMskater on 02-11-2006 08:37 PM
caramelangel1 wrote:
I did have the speakers on but there was no music just some noise. I believe it is because the files I tried to import were mpeg4 (cds downloaded on to itunes located in my itunes music library). When I imported mp3 files they did fine. This explantion was great but how do I get a converter that is free that I can understand how to use.
Try this site here http://media-convert.com/
Sandspurious wrote:How awesome is this....more than 1,000 views per month since I originally published this. I'm glad a lot of people have been able to use it, but some more questions and (hopefully positive) comments or experiences are always welcome.
GEICO isn't the only way you could be saving a lot of money...make your own ringtones...for free!
Hi Sandspurious!!! I got a kick out of the Geico comment!!! 
That IS great that so many uers are looking at your ringtone thread!! And that took a LOT of work on your part!! You did good!!!!
Sandspurious wrote:
If you like your ringtones, you should make them now before this group has it's way. Read this thread to hear about how AT&T is getting sued in order to take away your rights to listen to your own music (in the form of ringtones).
Yep, I read it on the other board and it's totally ridiculous. If they are suing ATT then don't you think they should also sue Verizon and the umpteenth amount of websites that offer ringtones???? It's CRAZY!
hidden_dragon
