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Audiko: an easy (and free) way to create ringtones

by Mel Martin Dec 12th 2008 at 10:00AM

When the iPhone came out, things looked pretty bleak in the ringtone department. You were supposed to use the sounds that came with the iPhone, and like it. Things loosened up a bit, as Apple thought it was just fine to buy them from the iTunes store. If you already had the music you wanted to make into a ringtone, too bad, you had to buy the track again, and only if it was designated an 'official' ring tone capable song.

Then things got easier, and people started using GarageBand to do the deed, and Apple seemed to be looking the other way. Then iToner came out, and now we have PocketMac Ring tone Studio, which are utilities you can buy and create the ringtones you want from your own music. We've also reported on how to create ringtones using just iTunes.

Somewhat under the radar is Aukido. It's a website you can visit, upload one of your music tracks, cut it to a proper length, and even do a nice fade at the end so it isn't abrupt. I've tried it on a few tracks I own and it worked great. You can then download the track as an MP3, or better yet, the iPhones native M4R format. Then you drag it into your iTunes ringtone folder and you are ready to go.

The site is also crammed full of other ringtones people have created and left on the site. That could be legally murky, and I've only used my own tracks. Your mileage may vary, but Aukido is worth a look, and an upload/download.

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When the iPhone came out, things looked pretty bleak in the ringtone department. You were supposed to use the sounds that came with the...
 

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Jessica

I've been having problems with the Audiko ringtones, their in the ringtones folder on itunes...everything is sync'd, connected, etc... but they don't show up on my iphone under my ringtones.... any help with this? The ringtones are all 20-25 seconds long....

January 15 2009 at 9:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Josh

You can do this officially on GarageBand.

December 14 2008 at 5:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ian

This is amazing!

Has anyone else noticed that iTunes finally disabled the ability to reconvert your purchased music to an MP3 and get past the DRM? I did that before and then used Garageband to make ringtones from my purchased music. They ended up sounding like crap too. Then I went to using ishowu to record video AND audio, sucking out the audio, and then using Garageband. Took FOREVER! That was just the part to get past the DRM these days! Now that I know about this site......you can forget making my own!

December 12 2008 at 3:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
scott

I started grabbing some ringtones from Audiko before I ever got my iPhone. Their selection of classic rock 'tones is great. Never had to create one that wasn't already available through Audiko.

December 12 2008 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael

Is everyone forgetting that there is a really and truly cheap and easy way to get ringtones on your iPhone?

1. Find the song you want to convert to a ringtone
2. Get Info on the song, go to the "Options" tab
3. Set the start and stop time for exactly where and how long you want the ringtone to be
4. Right click and select "Create AAC version" to convert the song to AAC encoding (if you haven't set your preferences in iTunes to convert to AAC, Google how to do that first)
5. Locate the AAC version of your song - it is an .m4a file in your iTunes library (Right-click the file then select "Show in Finder" on a Mac)
6. Copy that file to your desktop
7. Rename the filename extension from .m4a to .m4r
8. Delete the ringtone AAC file from the iTunes application, move it to Trash
9. Unset the start/stop times for the song you created
10. Import the .m4r file from your desktop

Presto! You have a Ringtone under the Ringtones section of your Library.

December 12 2008 at 1:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ian

Maybe Apple "looked the other way" with Garageband initially but you really should mention that Garageband actually has a builtin ringtone export option. That would imply Apple approving it?

December 12 2008 at 12:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Ian's comment
Gman

Apple is clearly once again being stubborn for no reason, and in turn making life difficult for its user base. Clearly one should not have to use any of these roundabout ways to upload there own ringtone - I mean even my 5 year old nokia let's you upload your own ringtone. Truely pathetic on Apple's part.

December 12 2008 at 1:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
HarmfulDose

It's easy to pick on Apple 99 percent of the times, but I am sure the RIAA
has something in place that Apple has to comply to. Probably same reason
why we cant buy iTunes music over the cellular network. Don't kill the messenger.

December 12 2008 at 1:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Klaus

Nice service - if you want some unique tones made for the iPhone have a look at http://www.ringtonefeeder.com/

December 12 2008 at 12:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tyler Lemke

Great free service. I used them about a year ago, but forgot about them.

Thank you for reminding me about them.


December 12 2008 at 12:05 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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