The Ringtone Thread

[TheLoony]

I finally succumbed to getting a stupid phone about three months ago.

I have, for the most part, no clue as to how it works. I'm home and typing on my computer, having a shot of vodka, at the moment. Hold on.....

In any case, I had this brilliant idea to get a "special" ringtone. I thinks to meself, "How hard can this be? It's a SMART phone, right?"

Sorta reminds me of the old Guiness ads - "Brilliant!".......Not so much.

What I have in my whatever phone is my 32 gig sd card from my old mp3 player and the files don't match up all the time for whatever reason. I can get live versions but not exactly what I'm looking for. I want that exciting song to kick me off, not the crowd and a four count.

I'm not stupid, just stupid with a stupid phone, completely lost and at the mercy of others. How did I survive this long, after all I have done, to see this tech rise and take over the world. Skynet.............

Nope. Stopping there. Good night. Morning. Whatever.

[Vic2012]

If it's an Android phone it's not too difficult to copy music to the phone. If it's an IPhone, I have very little experience with them so can't help there.

I have a couple ringtones I copied to my Android a while back, Balls To The Wall, and 2 Minutes To Midnight.

[Zeuhlmate]

On the first mobile phone I had (motorola), one could dial notes, make a melody and use it.
I dialed the and used melody from Kraan: Almrausch

[progmatist]

The problem with cryptic technology has been ongoing for quite some time. Programming a VCR was mystifying to most people. Most VCRs flashed 12:00 because people didn't know how to make it stop. It all boils down to super-geek engineers not knowing how ordinary people approach gadgets.

For what it's worth, my ringtone for voice calls is Le Orme's Danza Del Vento; for emails and texts, it's an edited clip of The Truth Will Set You Free, right at the 19:26 mark where Tomas first used the pipe organ patch.

[TheLoony]

Dammit I swear I didn't post this last night. I must have hit the button accidentally as I wasn't sure if I was making sense and had actually made what I was trying to say clear.

Ok whatever.

It's weird how this works. I can use any live version of a song from Rush but cannot use the studio version. I had the live version of Big Money but with the crowd noise and the four count it got irritating. Also, after a month or two I'm completely sick of that tune but I can say I have never been so intimate with just a few seconds of a song until doing this lol. Some really nice work from Big Al in the intro to that tune.

My friend edited a live version of Tom Sawyer so it kicks off right at the beginning of the song but that's not what I really wanted. I'll take it but it's not quite right for what I wanted. I guess it has something to do with the files being .wma instead of whatever else but the live files I have are .wma so wtf? They all are .wma so why can I use some but not others?

[Halmyre]

My phone won't let me use an MP3 as a ringtone unless it's been saved to it in a particular way, and I can't remember the exact procedure to use. So for the last few years I've been stuck with Stereolab's "Cybernetica Babicka" which I picked because it cuts through any background noise even at a low-ish volume. Only downside is a mate of mine thought it sounded a bit like the intro to a Bay City Rollers' track.

[wiz_d_kidd]

I have over two dozen prog ringtones on my phone. They are customized, short-snippets (5-30 sec long) of interesting prog bits (mostly song introductions) that are attention getting. If you have an Android phone, I can help you.

[wiz_d_kidd]

Dammit I swear I didn't post this last night. I must have hit the button accidentally as I wasn't sure if I was making sense and had actually made what I was trying to say clear.

Ok whatever.

It's weird how this works. I can use any live version of a song from Rush but cannot use the studio version. I had the live version of Big Money but with the crowd noise and the four count it got irritating. Also, after a month or two I'm completely sick of that tune but I can say I have never been so intimate with just a few seconds of a song until doing this lol. Some really nice work from Big Al in the intro to that tune.

My friend edited a live version of Tom Sawyer so it kicks off right at the beginning of the song but that's not what I really wanted. I'll take it but it's not quite right for what I wanted. I guess it has something to do with the files being .wma instead of whatever else but the live files I have are .wma so wtf? They all are .wma so why can I use some but not others?

If the studio versions are not even showing up in the "add" list, then it could be that some part of the metadata is corrupt or missing. You can edit the metadata on a PC or perhaps download a free app to do it. Also, some HTC phones (HTC-10 for example) to not natively support .wma files at all.

[Scott Bails]

The problem with cryptic technology has been ongoing for quite some time. Programming a VCR was mystifying to most people. Most VCRs flashed 12:00 because people didn't know how to make it stop. It all boils down to super-geek engineers not knowing how lazy people are.

.

Corrected for accuracy.

[progmatist]

^^ Yes, it's partly, but not all laziness. When I used to work in the IT game, I've had to translate geek to English on many occasions. What seems like a no brainer to us geeks is a foreign concept to the average person. BTW: I myself never met a VCR I was unable to program. At many a house I would visit, I would put an and to my hosts' flashing 12:00.

[Scott Bails]

^^ Yes, it's partly, but not all laziness. When I used to work in the IT game, I've had to translate geek to English on many occasions. What seems like a no brainer to us geeks is a foreign concept to the average person. BTW: I myself never met a VCR I was unable to program. At many a house I would visit, I would put an and to my hosts' flashing 12:00.

Sure. IT jargon can get difficult to a layman. But every VCR I ever bought came with very clear instructions on how to program the clock.

Sorry - I know I'm coming off as cranky. It's Monday, and I've never had time for Luddites.

[rdclark]

My default ringtone is the beginning of "Teakbois." So shrill and loud and obnoxious, impossible to ignore, and the only rational response is whatever will make it stop immediately.

I was in a medical office this morning when my phone rang and scared the bejebus out of the nurse. I guess it's good she wasn't drawing blood just then.

[Gruno]

I was in a medical office this morning when my phone rang and scared the bejebus out of the nurse. I guess it's good she wasn't drawing blood just then.

I had fun editing tracks and making my own ringtones. Then, I realized that I hated to hear other ringtones in public. For the past 10 years I have used no ringer and opt for vibration-only

[moecurlythanu]

My ringtone is the theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Way cool, and tends to get many compliments. From dudes, anyway.

[frinspar]

I got a new phone recently and changed my general ringtone to the starting theme from the 80s arcade game Xevious. It's about 8 seconds long and repeats.
My message notification tone is the option selection chime from the game Wave Race on the Nintendo64. Noticeable, but short and subtle.
When my wife calls it plays the chorus from "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" by The Police.
Seems like most people over 50 have chosen to use the ring from old rotary phones so they can hear it in public. And I guess they feel like they're being clever, getting back at technology somehow.

[progmatist]

It's Monday, and I've never had time for Luddites.

Remember the CDW commercials from back in the day, when people would ask "Fred" the IT guy silly questions about tech? The tagline was, "Dealing with technology is hard, CDW makes it easier." My response to that was I beg to differ: Dealing with technology is easy.....dealing with people who deal with technology is what's hard.

[rdclark]

I had fun editing tracks and making my own ringtones. Then, I realized that I hated to hear other ringtones in public. For the past 10 years I have used no ringer and opt for vibration-only

My Teakbois ringtone was chosen because I tend to simply not notice the phone ringing or feel the vibrations, and thus miss calls. Most of the time I don't care about incoming calls, keep the ringer turned off, and let them go to voice mail. But if I'm expecting an important call, I really need a distinctive, penetrating ringtone that I will actually notice.

[NogbadTheBad]

I used Larks Tongues In Aspic Part 2 for the longest time, currently using Vezhlivy Otkaz - LZ.

[Jerjo]

I used this for text messages for quite a while (until it drove my wife nuts)

[Dave (in MA)]

I have a mashup of several Hanna-Barbera cartoon sound effects, which completely annoys my wife:

http://s000.tinyupload.com/download....50631488461116

[Progtastic]

First 30 seconds of Sirius by Alan Parsons was my standard ringtone for many years. Making a ringtone for the iPhone isn't hard, the audio snippet needs to be saved in m4a format and then file extension renamed to m4r. Importing via iTunes should be a breeze then.

[progmatist]

^^ Or if you have an Android phone, it can use straight mp3 clips as ringtones.

[Scott Bails]

First 30 seconds of Sirius by Alan Parsons was my standard ringtone for many years.

I had that for a while, too. Loved it, but it's too quiet to cut through noise sometimes.

[viukkis]

I only use crappy songs as ringtones because every time I used a good one, it ruined that song for me for a while. It's not nice to put on your favourite album and then suddenly hear your ringtone real loud.

[TheLoony]

QUOTE=progmatist;830487]^^ Or if you have an Android phone, it can use straight mp3 clips as ringtones.[/QUOTE]

Ok so I need to turn the file into mp3 format. Makes sense as the phone won't play the files I have without the VLC player. But why does it seem to be certain files will work and others wont even if they are the same type of file?