Creating iPhone Ringtones

Now that I've had my new iPhone 5 for a couple of months I've finally started to get my phone configured the way I want it. The apps I use most frequently are on the main screen. I've created folders for utilities, different types of games, and for the photography apps I have in abundance. But the one thing that really personalized my phone was setting individual ringtones for people.

Ringtones are a very nice way to personalize your phone and let you know who is calling as soon as you hear it. You can buy ringtones through Apple but did you know you can create your own? It isn't obvious, but creating your own ringtone is an easy thing to do.

A lot of blogs have a step-by-step on how to create a ringtone for free using iTunes or GarageBand. You can look at those instructions here, here or here. Rather than re-do those instructions I want to show you how easy it can be using an almost free solution.

For only 99 cents you can download a great ringtone application called, appropriately enough, Ringtones. This inexpensive solution will really speed up your ringtone creation and allow you to create an unlimited number of ringtones from any DRM-Free song in your iTunes library. Since Apple now allows you to download the DRM free version of purchased music it basically means anything in your library.

The Ringtones application interface looks a lot like iTunes. When you open the Ringtones application it will display your entire iTunes library of music including all your playlists. Your first step is to select the song you want to use for your ringtone.

Once you have selected the song the wave form of your song will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. If you don't know what a wave form is don't worry about it. Just think of it as an audio map of your song. The key will be to find the section of the song you want to use for your ringtone. Whatever is inside the blue rectangle will become your ringtone.

You can grab and move the blue selection left or right to get just the part of the song you want. You can also grab the left or right side of the rectangle to change the starting point, end point as well as the length of the ringtone.

At the bottom of the window you can set manually set the ringtone loop size, fade in or out and adjust the volume. To hear how your selection will sound just hit the "Preview" button. As your ringtone plays the selection will loop continuously until you stop it. You can adjust the starting points and stopping points during preview and get just the section you want. After you have the perfect selection, click the "Send to iTunes" button on the lower right and you are done.

Now when you open iTunes and select "Tones" you will now see your brand new ringtone!

Your next step will be connecting your iPhone and dragging the ringtone to your phone.

Apple makes great software but how you add a ringtone to an individual contact isn't one of their great moments in ease of use or interface design. To add your new ringtone masterpiece as the ringtone for a specific individual open the contacts app on your iPhone and select the person's entry you want to modify. In the upper right corner select "Edit."

Now scroll down and click on the ringtone arrow button. 

Select the ringtone you created and added to your phone and you are ready to go!

You can use ringtones for phone numbers, text tones, Facebook Post or any sound that the iPhone uses to alert you. Those sounds are available in the Settings App under "Sounds" and you can change them the same way you modified the contact information. 

Now you can stop worrying about all the little details and just concentrate on being creative while you build your ringtone library!