So you want to make realtone ringtones?This guide will tell you how you can create realtone ringtones for fun, friends or maybe for profit. High quality, original content as mobile phone downloads can generate revenues through sites like
www.mobtex.net and others on the
ringtone bandwagon.
Before you can create a realtone you need mp3 and wav versions of a file which you have licence to; some cool music snip or stab you just produced on software like Cool Edit Pro / Adobe Audition, WaveLab, QBase or similar. This tutorial assumes you've already created your new ringtone masterpiece and have copies of it as .mp3 and .wav – with these files as a starting point and less than an hour we can have ready to roll realtones that will work on a multitude of mobile devices!
May I point out the world doesn't need another Crazy frog remix, Jamster / Jamba will sue you if you try and any true friend with some self-respect should disown you for wanting to make one.
Don't try the methods mentioned here to rip your favourite CD's and make them into ringtones you then charge for. It's against copyright laws and record label legal teams are officious, litigious and have more money for the court system than you have. If you want to do cover stuff though in most cases it's acceptable, get your guitar, drums, whatever and bang out as many cool tracks as you can, be creative and enjoy!
Please be aware that in the UK ringtones are licenced by the
MCPS PRS Alliance who publish a list of
contentious works you're better off not reproducing.
Lets get the tools we needThe first goal is to download the software you need to be able to produce all the relevant file formats to cover the majority of realtone supporting handsets.
Those file formats are:
mp3
wav
mmf
amr
awb
For each ringtone we need these five files, if we're hosting the content our importing and WAP downloading system would do the rest. If you were making your own download system you'd need to script a query against the HTTP Content Accept variable from the handset, once you have this you can work out the best suited file to serve the handset.
I ran content accept queries against thousands of mobile devices over a couple a years and the resulting
handset compatability guide lists all the phones that told us they supported the files we're about to make.
Once we have the tools to create the files I'll guide you through the process of making your first multi-handset realtone.
Setup: Step 1:Download and install
Nokia Multimedia Convertor - you will need to
register with Nokia before you can access the 17.3mb download but by doing so you'll find a whole new world of resources and tools at your fingertips.
To install the converter you also need to request a serial number from Nokia, they'll email this to you and once you paste it into the installer you're well on your way.
Nokia Multimedia Converter will be used to generate the AMR and AWB versions of your ringtone masterpiece.
Setup: Step 2:Download and install
SMAF Yamaha WSD (Wave Sound Decorator)This 9.6mb download is the tool to take a wav file and convert it to MMF and as such make it available to Samsung, LG and many more handsets. More info on SMAF-MMF can be found on the
Yamaha SMAF website.
Before we go further, notes on naming conventionsIf you're going to do this you need to bear in mind that for each track you make there are five files, now this might not sound like a lot initially but I'm telling you by the time you get 1,000 tracks done and put down it can easily get out of hand if you don't have a sensible naming convention that you stick to religiously throughout.
There are some big players in this industry who still can't get it right, I've had huge packs of content sent from studios before where they had no idea which file related to which tone and I had to reject the content as it was worthless. Honestly, I mean big names are messing it up because they're too big with too many people working on it and they've had no standard to adhere to.
Here is the standard that works best for me and from what other ringtone producers have told me many other tone retailers. It's the most logical:
Top level directory called REALTONES
Second level directories called MP3 WAV MMF AMR and AWB
Name the first tone you make "1"
Name the second tone you make "2"
Save 1.mp3 in MP3
Save 1.wav in WAV
Save 1.mmf in MMF
Save 1.amr in AMR
Save 1.awb in AWB
You need to keep a log of which tone is which and the corresponding files, open up Excel, Calc or whatever you use and make a simple spreadsheet that looks like this:
Then for the first tone and subsequent others you make you build up the spreadsheet like this:
If you're doing this for profit: When the companies you send this content to come to import it onto their system it will be easy for them to work with, I know this may seem like teaching you to suck eggs but so many ringtone producers get this important step so badly wrong. Example: One company I was importing the content for had it all wrong, what was labelled as being Madonna American Pie was in fact something like the Bulgarian National Anthem. Their content was rejected and they ultimately went bust as all retailers they approached would have the same problem.
Some time back I wrote a post with more info on
content directory structures - it's worth viewing to see the logic and may help you manage your files in the long run.
For those thinking "Wouldn't it be better to call the files by name?"
NO! Macs are limited to 28 characters in a file name, spaces in file names are bad practice and if you replace " " with "_" and remove all "'" you need to make the rules clear and stick to them totally. It gets too complicated, numbering really is the best way.
Let's make realtones!By this point you will have your original mp3 file and wav files, these should be no longer than 30 seconds as after that point most mobile phone networks will have sent the call to the user's voice mail service.
Rendering: Step 1: AWB & AMROpen Nokia Multimedia Converter > file > open > select mp3 file
The screen should now look like this:
The software defaults to AMR with a Bit rate (KBPS) of 12.2 - leave this as it is and hit convert and your screen should show you a progress update like this:
You've just made your first AMR file, this is needed for narrow band Nokia handsets and many more, play it to make sure it sounds clean, check the file size isn't too large to download by WAP. If all is acceptable save the file as "1.amr" inside your AMR directory.
Now revert back to the original Mp3 file by using the drop down menu on the software labelled View, then under Audio select WB-AMR, this defaults to a Bit rate (KBPS) of 23.05, again leave it as it is and click convert.
Once this has rendered the mp3 to wideband AMR and you've checked file size and sound quality save this as "1.awb" in the AWB directory.
Rendering: Step 2: MMFNow that most supported Nokia handsets and many more are covered with AMR and AWB we need to take the original WAV file and convert this to MMF to cater for the Samsung, LG and other handsets that support SMAF.
Under Help there is an option called “Sample Type Spec Sheet” this will tell you the possible file formats and capabilities.
File > Open > Select the wav file you want to convert > select MA-5 from the drop down menu, and save as "1.mmf" inside the MMF directory.
This is nice software in the sense that it will report any errors to you, things like wrong sample rate, wrong bit rate. It will only let you output a file when it knows that it's okay.
Now as long as your Mp3 and Wav files are in respective directories and you have labelled everything as an exact match to the code field in the spreadsheet you should be onto a winner.
You've taken two source files and made them into five formats that will cover all the handsets listed under this
handset compatability guide - please note this is a very generic guide to say the least as there are thousands of models of cellphone and each one may have different settings or internal configuration depending on what the network specifies.
To test files you need to upload them somewhere then access them on your cellphone to make sure they work and sound as good as you wanted! We suggest the Mobtex
WAP uploader as it's ideal for the job!
For more information on specific cellphone capabilities the
WURFL is an XML file containing over 5,000 handset specifications. I've part documented
my use of the WURFL on my blog and it's supported by
Yahoo Groups with a number of active members so answers to questions can be found.
Follow up resources and tools:
Forum NokiaDeveloper Discussion at Forum NokiaMotorola's Moto CoderSony Ericsson DeveloperSiemens / Benq DeveloperSymbian DeveloperWURFL and WALL Blog postingBlog guide to configure mime types for mobile phone downloadsWAP uploader blog post
