How to Make iPhone Ringtones By Using Audacity

If the standard ring tones that come with your iPhone are not what you want to hear when someone calls, then there are ways to change that. You can pay for ring tones through iTunes, but that is not much use if you want to use one of your own files as a ring tone. Audacity is a free-to-download program that makes editing audio files a simple process, and it can be used to help you create a ring tone for your phone.

Setting Up Audacity

• 1

  Go to audacity.sourceforge.net and select "Download." Then, click one of the choices available for the "Beta" option.

• 2

  Follow the second link in the "Resources" section to download ffmpeg libraries. You will need these since they allow you to export files to multiple formats, including AAC, the format required here.

• 3

  Extract the files you have just downloaded and add them to the "plugins" directory in your Audacity program folder.

• 4

  Open Audacity, which you will find in the "Start" menu, once you have it fully installed.

• 5

  Go to the "Edit" menu and click "Preferences." Then, go to "import/export," where you will find a box about ffmpeg that will read "ffmpeg library not found." Click "Find Library" and look through the plugins folder for the files you just extracted. You should see a single dll file; click on it and open it. Audacity will now be ready to export to AAC.

Editing and Adding the Ring Tone

• 1

  Choose a song that you wish to make into a ring tone. Open the "File" menu and select "Open." Click the song you wish to edit and select "Open" again.

• 2

  Press "Play" to listen to the song. Watch the progress line at the top as it moves from left to right. Do this to know the precise start and finish time of the section of the song that you want to make into a ring tone. Limit it to 40 seconds because there is little need for a ring tone to be longer than that.

• 3

  Highlight the part of the song you wish to use. Press "Ctrl"+"C" to copy the highlighted part, "Ctrl"+"N" to open a new file, and then "Ctrl"+"V" to paste it in.

• 4

  Save your new file, remembering where you have stored it. Go to the file and right-click before selecting "Rename." Here you must change the file extension to "m4r."

• 5

  Open iTunes and add the shortened music file by dragging it into the ring tones section of your library. Connect your iPhone to the computer and drag the new ring tone to the iPhone. iTunes will sync the two and the ring tone will now be available for use on your phone.