Chris Pugh

In yesterday’s post I talked about converting MP3 audiobooks for your iPod/iPhone. In today’s post, I will be continuing with the Apple theme and will be talking about creating ringtones for your iPhone using nothing but iTunes.

The first thing you need to do is find a piece of music or audio that you want to use for your ringtone. Apple has in place a 30 second maximum time limit for ringtones. You can use 20 seconds, or 10 seconds, but nothing more than 30 will work. This is a limitation of the iPhone and I haven’t found a way to use more than 30 seconds. If there’s a way to use more than 30 seconds, I’d like to know.

Let’s get started.

The first thing you need to do is setup the iTunes import options. Open iTunes and do the following:

Edit > Preferences > General

In the middle of the window, click on “Import Settings”

Make sure “Import Using” is set as “AAC Encoder”.

The Bit Rate can be whatever you want; I choose to leave it at: High Quality (128 Kbps). Setting this to a higher or lower bitrate will adjust the filesize and sound quality of your ringtone.
Click “Ok” to go back to iTunes.

Now, in iTunes, browse to the song or audio file of your choice and write down the start and stop time for the 30 second block that you want to use as your ringtone. Next, right click on the song and choose “Get Info” from the menu. Click on the options tab and in the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” numbers into their respective fields. Click “Ok” to go back to the display view in iTunes.

Now “Right Click” on the song once more and choose “Create AAC Version”. Once completed you should see a duplicate copy of your song listed that is only 30 seconds long. Go ahead and remove this file from the iTunes library making sure to select “Keep Files” when prompted.

Now, in Windows, browse to “My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Name of Band\Etc\” and find the newly created AAC file and rename it from .m4a to .m4r. Now import the .m4r file back into iTunes using “File > Add File to Library” or drag and drop. Sync your iPhone and enjoy your newly created (free) ringtone.

Related posts:

1. How To Convert MP3's into the iTunes Audiobook Format
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