Filed under: Software, Hacks, Tips and tricks, Open Source, iPhone
Ringtonator, a GUI for the ringtone hack
Last night, Joe sent us a GUI app he put together for Cleverboy's ringtone hack we posted yesterday. Ringtonator is a drag-and-drop application that will turn any AAC file into an iTunes/iPhone ringtone, or vice versa.One caveat-- while this program doesn't require a separate install of AtomicParsley, the application that makes the metadata edit possible, it does still require AAC encoding on the sound file-- Joe says he might add in mp3 to AAC conversion at a later date, but he doesn't really have to, as it's easy enough to figure out how to do that.
But once you've got the AAC file, just drag it onto this little wrench phone thing, and iTunes (the current iteration, anyway) will play nice with it. Thanks, Joe!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
fuzzylogic said 10:41AM on 9-13-2007
How is this better than MakeiPhoneRingtone? Is the stik metadata not changed in MakeiPhoneRingtone?
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Aron Trimble said 10:41AM on 9-13-2007
Still don't understand why this is better than using MakeiPhoneRingtone.app... I used that to successfully add 5 ringtones to my iPhone!
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JP said 10:43AM on 9-13-2007
Cleverboy's method works well, although you can't fire up the ringtone editor and create a 30 second clip from the new ringtone file.
Then I started looking at solutions on getting iTunes 30 second previews working as ringtones. I followed an guide up online and when I went to export my iTunes preview playlist I was NOT able to see the preview file URL.
I fired up Wireshark and watched the traffic to apple while I listened to 30 second previews, at this point I was able to Follow the TCP stream and save the data as RAW, remove the header info, import into iTunes as .m4r, then you must rename the file back to .m4a and refresh in iTunes... this will prevent the "Can't play on your iPhone" message. More info and a quick write up at: http://weknowsnow.com/blog/
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Andrew said 10:49AM on 9-13-2007
It's better because if Apple plugs the rename trick that MakeiPhoneRingtone uses, this will continue to work because it is adding the metadata the iTunes uses to flag a file as a ringtone. Unless Apple changes the metadata string (which is unlikely because they would have to convert any existing ringtones to the new metadata) this should be pretty update resistant.
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Aron Trimble said 11:00AM on 9-13-2007
I see the benefit now, that makes a lot of sense.
Regarding ringtones created with the name change... but isn't likely that once it shows up in Ringtones it has the metadata change already? I don't have atomic parsley installed or i'd check it myself.
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nicolas said 11:09AM on 9-13-2007
we made a dropplet: http://www.iphone-ticker.de/2007/09/13/download-video-klingeltone-mit-ringrong/
one step less (you dont have to start up an app ;) ) and with integrated backup. regards nicolas
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alfredog1976 said 11:25AM on 9-13-2007
Is a Windows version planned?
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jrflesch said 11:59AM on 9-13-2007
ok.... honestly im getting sick of these posts about turning AAC files into ringtones!
How about someone wright a special GUI app for making ANY music file a ringtone. THAT post would be worth reading and THAT app would almost be worth buying!
Can i please get some affirmation?
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Nick Fox said 1:12PM on 9-13-2007
I hope this is developed further. The ideal app would include a built in AAC encoder and a small timeline, allowing you to select a section of the song from within the ringtone app itself, possibly even adding fades of predetermined or user-specified lengths.
This is a great start, but I really want to see this become a fully feature program and not a one trick pony that requires you to do a lot of work to begin with. If I knew the first thing about programming for Mac, I'd do it myself...and I don't even have an iPhone (But lots of my friends do).
So, anyone out there willing to take this app to the next level?
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swaltuo said 1:41PM on 9-13-2007
I have been using MakeiPhoneRingtone,app and its worked fine ... but beside that I don't see the complaint about both programs just working with AAC files because iTunes will automatically convert any file in iTunes into an AAC file if you ask it to. All you have to do is right-click on a song/ringtone and select "Convert Selection to AAC", then you could use either app to add the file as a ringtone ...
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jrflesch said 1:58PM on 9-13-2007
fox,
thats exactly what i am saying!!!
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Parasite said 8:15PM on 9-13-2007
It doesn't work for me :-( Whenever I drag an AAC to the app, nothing happens. (It is necessary to have an iPhone connected to iTunes or something like that?)
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editiwizard said 4:31PM on 9-13-2007
Hah ha ha!
I just made five custom ringtones out of Beatles songs... ticking off both Apple, Inc. AND Apple Corps.
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sneswii said 4:38PM on 9-13-2007
is anyone else having trouble getting results with this? for me, choosing "Convert to AAC" results in an m4a file which, no matter how many times i've tried, does NOT show up in my Ringtones library after being dropped on the app. i even tried manually changing the extension to aac just to see if it helped, but no such luck. suggestions anyone?
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nicolas said 5:52PM on 9-13-2007
RingRong Version 1.1 is out, fixes some issues: http://www.iphone-ticker.de/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/ringrong11app.zip
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fdot said 7:53PM on 9-13-2007
it doesnt work for me.. i drag the mp4 file over the drop box and nothing happems im on a ppc... anyone else
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fdot said 8:00PM on 9-14-2007
what kind of computer are you using parasite
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henry park said 10:57AM on 9-14-2007
I almost have everything working on my Mac.
1. took song file with extension --.m4a
2. cut the song down to 30 seconds using Audacity
3. exported the song from Audacity in .aiff format
4. imported the .aiff format song clip into iTunes
5. using iTunes converted the .aiff sound clip using AAC
6. changed the extension on the .m4a file to .m4r
7. created a playlist called "Ringtones" in iTunes
8. imported the song clip with the .m4r extension into that playlist
After doing these 8 steps, the song clip shows up in the "Ringtones" folder of my iTunes library. It also shows up in the iPhone's "Ringtones" tab. However, when I try to sync the song, it says that the song clip cannot be copied because "it cannot be played on this iPhone".
Does anyone know why? or how to fix it?
Thanks
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Parasite said 1:01PM on 9-15-2007
I'm on an G5 iMac (Rev. c) running the latest build of Tiger.
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boss sauce said 2:46PM on 9-22-2007
Yeah, same problem as Parasite. Ringonator happily does its thing, exporting the m4r file, and iTunes imports it, but I think there are two problems: (1) it doesn't appear in the library under "Ringtones", and (2) I get the "Some of the items... were not copied... because they cannot be played on this iPhone." iTunes version "7.4.2 (4)", MacBook Pro, iPhone software version 1.0.2. FWIW I _just_ upgraded iTunes-- maybe they already blocked this hack?
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