Ringtones say a lot about you, your style, and your attitude. And they can be a helpful aural cue to alert you to exactly who is calling. Yet, for some reason, the iPhone--the undisputed king of all smart phones--is limited in terms of ringtones. You can use either the small default selection that comes on the phone or purchase tracks from the iTunes store to convert for 99 cents each. If you're looking for ringtone variety, that's an awfully expensive way to go.
There's also a way to create customized ringtones using GarageBand ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ), but that's a complex process that likely will not appeal to folks who don't otherwise use the program. Fortunately, there are alternatives in the form of standalone apps that let you create custom ringtones. I took a few of the available choices out there for a spin: PocketMac's RingtoneStudio 2 for iPhone; Xilisoft's iPhone Ringtone Maker for Mac 1.0; Pixel Research Labs' Ringer; and AMG's Make Ringtones on your Mac. These apps are specifically designed to help you easily create a new set of ringtones that make your iPhone sing the tunes you want it to.
PocketMac RingtoneStudio 2
PocketMac RingtoneStudio 2 for iPhone lets you create a new ringtone with a few clicks. Just drop a music file onto the interface (which looks like an iPhone), select the portion of the tune you want to use--up to 30 seconds, Apple says--and click Create. RingtoneStudio exports the new ringtone to iTunes automatically, ready for syncing. The current version of the product adds fade-in and fade-out options, volume boost, and a new waveform editor that looks similar to waveforms found in sound editing software. RingtoneStudio lets you zoom into a waveform up to 16x, and now features unlimited undos for volume adjustments.
In my tests, the program worked quite well. I converted about 10 music tracks, including the song In Exile by Thrice (my current favorite), and RingtoneStudio turned the MP3 into a ringtone in seconds. The program supports the same formats as QuickTime, so that includes MP3, AAC, M4a and QuickTime movies--although you can't convert MPEG-1 videos (because the audio and video are stored as one file). Unlike Xilisoft's iPhone Ringtone Maker 1.0 (which I'll get to shortly), RingtoneStudio 2 shows you a thumbnail preview of the video, not just the audio portion, so it's possible to find that one jocular moment in Pink Panther 2 (and there is only one, by the way) and make it your ringtone.
RingtoneStudio had trouble with a 2GB file (the movie Miracle at St. Anna, converted from DVD using HandBrake). Volume adjustments took over 15 minutes to apply, and the program became sluggish. PocketMac says the slowdown is a result of how RingtoneStudio analyzes the file and--for volume adjustment--changes the actual sound level, as opposed to just the QuickTime setting. PocketMac suggests using just a portion of the video to speed things up.
RingtoneStudio 2 works well, but a few extra features like zoom and video preview do not justify the slightly higher price of $20 compared to $15 for Ringer and Ringtone Maker, especially since this app has a few bugs and supports fewer file formats than Ringtone Maker.
Xilisoft iPhone Ringtone Maker 1.0
Xilisoft iPhone Ringtone Maker 1.0 is compatible with a much wider variety of video and music formats than PocketMac's RingstoneStudio 2. In fact, Ringtone Maker supports just about every format I can think of: MP3, WAV, Windows Media, XviD (a popular BitTorrent file format), DivX, and more.
Ringtone Maker gets the job done--but without any flare. The look and feel of the program reminds me of a Windows app circa 1999, with large bulbous buttons and goofy-looking shading. But no matter: in testing another 10 audio files, including the single by Echo & the Bunneymen called I Think I Need It Too (the smooth retro-synth song works well as a
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