RSS Feeds
Create Custom iPhone Ringtones the Free and Apple Way
Posted by Adam Pash at 3:00 AM on December 15, 2007
Apple has introduced a simple and free way to create and sync your own custom ringtones to the iPhone using GarageBand (i.e., Mac only). The first thing you'll need to do, if you haven't already, is download and install the latest update of GarageBand from Software Update (at the time of this writing, that's version 4.1.1). Once you've installed and restarted your computer, turning any song on your computer to a ringtone is a breeze. Here's how it works.
If you're using a song from your iTunes library, just open GarageBand, open iTunes, and simply drag and drop the song from iTunes to a new track in GarageBand.- Now click the Cycle Region button pictured above, which will activate the region loop tool.
- Now adjust the length of the region to the section of the song you want to export to iTunes as a ringtone (40 seconds long or less), again as pictured above.
- Finally, when you've got everything set the way you want it, just go to the menu bar and click Share -> Send Ringtone to iTunes. GarageBand will automatically convert the song to the proper format and sync it to your iTunes library as a Ringtone.
Simple, no? Likewise, if you prefer to create ringtones of your own music, just build your own tracks in GarageBand and repeat steps two through four. Unfortunately Apple hasn't provided a similar tool for Windows users yet, and I imagine that won't happen for some time, if at all. But if you're a Mac owner, creating custom ringtones for your iPhone just became dead simple.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
mike
Posted September 22, 2008 6:07 AM
My garageband doesnt give me the option "send ringtone to itunes" but it says i have the latest software, is there something im missing? this seems to be incredibly easy but i cant understand why i cannot get it to work on my mac
Lydia
Posted October 16, 2008 2:42 AM
Why cant I drag and drop a song I have purchased from itunes into Garage band? I have all the latest versions but it says I cannot import and aac protected file.
What am i missing??
Thanks!
EdZachary
Posted 2:22 PM 14/12/07
What GU014 said is dead on. Not all of us are on a mac or maybe we don't have iLife 4. Apple already gave you everything you need no matter what platform ... iTunes itself. I don't see much difference in the level of effort to do it one way vs the other. Listen to GU014! Do what he say ... do what he say ...
EdZachary
EDubya
Posted 2:22 PM 14/12/07
@bart430: I know that!
EDubya
bart430
Posted 1:28 PM 14/12/07
@EDubya: In order to use a Itunes downloaded song, its kinda of a pain. Not something that my wife would do or knows how to do, so her pain becomes mine.
bart430
bart430
Posted 1:26 PM 14/12/07
@Spyrojoe: Yeah, I will just call Steve up and tell him to get on it.
@Spyrojoe: I can't give them any credit, its not a workaround that I can use. :/
bart430
EDubya
Posted 1:23 PM 14/12/07
As a PC user, I don't feel too bad with the "workaround". I mean, I'm using legally purchased songs, and even putting them in AAC format! All I'm doing is changing one letter in the extension.
EDubya
Spyrojoe
Posted 1:16 PM 14/12/07
@bart430: I imagine that this is Apples way of making ringtones free by circumventing the system that the labels wanted. You have to give them credit for giving us a clever, legit workaround.
Spyrojoe
Spyrojoe
Posted 1:14 PM 14/12/07
@bart430: I'm sure if you ask nicely that they'll build a version of Garageband for windows just so you can get your free ringtones.
Spyrojoe
bart430
Posted 1:12 PM 14/12/07
I wouldnt know, I dont use Macs. I would if I was a graphic artist or heavy into video.
But I will say that its bull that you have to pay to make a song you already own into a ringtone. I know how to get around it, just a pain to do it. Apple should just let you use that nifty ringtone make already built in to Itunes for free.
bart430
aelver
Posted 12:28 PM 14/12/07
Awesome! Seeya iToner!
aelver
ColinC
Posted 12:26 PM 14/12/07
@bart430: Apple gives better support to windows than Microsoft gives support to OS X :-p
ColinC
bart430
Posted 12:17 PM 14/12/07
Thanks for the Windows support Apple.
bart430
gu014
Posted 11:53 AM 14/12/07
No need to use Garageband. Edit the start/end time of the track in iTunes. Export. Drag into ringtones.
gu014
btumpak
Posted 11:37 AM 14/12/07
this works great - up to 40 seconds of a song can be used
btumpak
dotorg greg
Posted 8:36 PM 14/12/07
Hm, it wasn't called a ringtone, I guess, but I did this with the previous version of Garageband [I have 3.0.4] about six months ago, and it works fine.
I just dropped an mp3 into a Garageband track, edited it down to the segment I wanted to loop, and then exported it to iTunes. [The one hassle with Garageband, that I couldn't create an mp3, I think it had to be .aiff, which iTunes then converted to an mp3. Which I uploaded onto my Sony Ericsson phone, done.
Maybe that was the easiest part, come to think of it, buying a phone which uses mp3's as ringtones...
dotorg greg
knvb1123
Posted 6:24 AM 15/12/07
Get a Blackberry y'all it can use anything, literally any file you tell it to for a ringtone... No special format crap.
But I do agree iPhone is the best phone yet but its too expensive for me. My Blackberry was $30 at Costco. Blackberry Pearl.
knvb1123
angelfish
Posted 10:24 AM 15/12/07
I created a bunch of custom ringtones for my iPhone the other night just using iTunes. I copied the song I wanted, edited the start and end times, converted to AAC (all my songs in iTunes are mp3s), deleted from iTunes BUT DIDN'T SEND FILE TO TRASH, found the file using finder and renamed the extension m4r, then when I double-clicked on it, iTunes automatically put it in my ringtones folder. Synched up the phone and -- boom baby! -- I can pretend I work at CTU and Jack Bauer is calling.
angelfish