Tuesday, July 15, 2008

howto: create a ringtone with Audacity


Audacity is an open source audio editing program. While it can be used by professionals to create an awfully good sounding stuff, normal folks like us can use it to cut part of you sound file, including MP3, to create your own ringtones. Audacity can read MP3 but it could not create a MP3 file since it doesn't ship with MP3 encoder. You will need Lame mp3 encoder for that. So download Lame first, unzip it into any directory, but do remember where you keep it. You will need it later.







Now open your sound file. Select the section you want to make a ringtone. Play the selected section until you get it right.







When you like what you hear, copy the section by pressing Ctrl-C or go to menu edit->copy. Then create a new project, and paste a sound clip you just copied into it. Play it one more time to make sure it's what you expect.

Finally, go to menu File->Export As MP3. If this is the first time you do this, Audacity will ask for the location of Lame. Just browse to where you unziped Lame (you do remember it right?). It will take a few moments to export to MP3. Once done, transfer that MP3 to your phone. Done.

By the way, there are some fun effects to try out like removing singer voice, reduce noise, fading, etc. Try them under Effect menu.


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