Ringtones for iPhone dead easy with this Mac app

There are a lot of ways to get ringtones on an iPhone. Some are easy. Some not so easy. Some are free. Some cost money.

A new release of PocketMac Ringtone Studio is about the easiest way to get ringtones on your phone, but it is not the cheapest. I think many users will be glad to buy the app, though, in exchange for the extreme ease of use.

Essentially, you drag and drop any MP3, AAC, M4A or a Quicktime movie file onto the app, highlight the part of the waveform you want, decide if you want to fade in and/or out, and Ringtone Studio will open iTunes if it isn't already open and put the file in the ringtones bin. That's it.

You can boost or lower the volume of any clip, and you can zoom in or out of the waveform for precise editing. Note: There is no onscreen button letting you know you can zoom. It's in the built in help files. You use Command-+ or Command-minus.

The only other thing I would like to see is the ability to rename your ringtone before sending it to iTunes. You can certainly rename it there, but doing it in the Ringtone Studio app would be perfect.

As I said, there are a lot of ways to do ringtones. You can buy them from the Apple, or use GarageBand, but I find the process has far too many steps. One favorite of mine is the Audiko website, which allows you to upload your clips, edit them online, and then download them and drag them into iTunes. It's free, and does the job.

Version 2 of Ringtone Studio is US$29.95 and has a 90 day money back guarantee. You can see some videos of how it works on the PocketMac website.

I think the app is a bit pricey for what it does, doubling in price since we first reviewed it, but it is very powerful and very easy to use. I think a lot of people will find it a perfect solution. Early buyers can get a free iPhone case. Ringtone Studio works with all iPhones, including phones running iPhone OS 3.0 and the new iPhone 3GS. The software requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or above.

View Tags

Source: http://www.pocketmac.net/

Categories

iPhone App Review

There are a lot of ways to get ringtones on an iPhone. Some are easy. Some not so easy. Some are free. Some cost money.A new release of...

Add a Comment

Sign in »

44 Comments

Filter by:

davidfennema

I've been playing with Ringtone studio for a couple days, and I cannot stress enough how easy it is to use! It literally takes just seconds to create great custom ringtones for your iphone. Highly recommended!!

July 21 2009 at 4:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Karl-Koenig Koenigsson

A change in time saves nine

July 17 2009 at 3:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Johnny

r u kidding? $30 for something I can do for free?

July 17 2009 at 1:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Johnny's comment

NightOne

You can walk from New York to Los Angeles for free so why would you ever buy a plane ticket or drive?

TUAW comments are becoming so sad. :(

The original article already stated that there are a lot of other ways to do this including ones that do not cost additional money. Do we really need tons of comments repeating the same thing?

July 17 2009 at 11:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Todd

Garageband certainly isn't the easiest tool for making ringtones, but it's not so hard as to justify a $30 price tag. $20, maybe; $15, absolutely.

July 17 2009 at 11:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Joseph

Hands down, MobileSpin is the easiest online iPhone ringtone maker.

http://mobilespin.net/

July 17 2009 at 4:22 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dave Evans

Be very careful using Audioko.......

When you confirm your phone number you are automatically signed up to The Tone Club at Â£4.50 per week!!!!

Make sure you read the rest of the message and text stop to them immediately or you will be charged. would suggest you phone their phone number (on the message, you need Option 5) and get a name and staff number in case they do not cancel the account.

Thieving scumbags like this really p... me off,

Dave

July 17 2009 at 2:48 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Steven

Dear Tuaw,

Thank you for giving me ads in my news feed online with real articles. I almost couldn't tell the difference between this and a real article! Well done!

Steven

July 16 2009 at 10:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Antonio

Holy crap, where have been my entire like, audiko??????? I LOVE IT!

July 16 2009 at 10:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Cameron

oops, didn't mean for the curse to be in that last little section there. I copy/pasted from another forum where I posted that. If it's a problem, I apologize.

July 16 2009 at 7:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Cameron

I would use GarageBand if I bought a Mac with Leopard, but I didn't, I bought Leopard and installed it on my Powerbook.

this is what you do (before all of this, make sure iTunes is set to import songs in AAC format)

1. Open iTunes. Search for the song you'd like to make a ringtone.
2. Search throughout the song for the 30 second clip you want to use; keep note of the timestamps
3. Right click on the song, and hit "get info" or w/e.
4. Within that menu, go to the options tab and the start times and stop times. Enter the times that you want to be the section that becomes the ringtone. (eg. 0:30-1:00...also if you are a perfectionist like me, you can set it to half seconds, like 0:30.5 etc to get it just perfect. Also remember that your ringtone can't be longer than 35 seconds.) save your changes.
5. Right click on the song again, and select "make AAC version". this will create an aac version of the 30 second clip you selected.
6. Find the 30 second version of your song in your iTunes music folder. Drag the song to your desktop.
7. Delete the 30 second clip from your iTunes library. (NOTE: Do not select send files to trash unless you keep your iTunes library and boot disc seperate. to be safe, select "keep files".)
8. On your desktop, right click on the 30 second clip and change the extension from .aac to .m4r. Save your changes.
9. Drag your new Ringtone into iTunes.
10. Plug in your iPhone and sync the ringtone(s) you've created. Congratulations, you just beat the system and got a free ringtone from your own library of songs. Make sure to go into your info pane and sync ringtones.

10 steps may seem intimidating but really it's simple as shit after you do it once. The whole process should take no more than 2 minutes.