How to Record Ring Tones

Unique cell phone ring tones give you the ability to express your individuality. But you don’t have to purchase a ring tone to have one that is unique. You can record your own custom ring tone by using a simple computer program that is included on all Macs, GarageBand. GarageBand is a fast, easy way to record your own custom ring tones.

Before you begin you will need to make sure you have the following things ready to record your own ring tone:

How to Make Your Own Ringtones

Now onto how to make your own ringtones. The first step is to open GarageBand on your computer. GarageBand is easy to use and has a lot of functionality to enable you to get the perfect ring tone. On the left side of the screen are the different tracks you can use to create your song. You can only use one track per instrument or voice. To add an additional track click on “Track” on the top menu and click “New Track”. After clicking on “New Track” you will be allowed to choose the type of instrument to assign to that track, or vocals if you will be using vocals.

Record Your Song

The built-in microphone on your Mac will record any vocals or instruments not hooked up via USB cable. The benefit to hooking up your instrument electronically is that each note that you play is entered into the program. This allows you to be able to correct wrong notes. For instance, if you hook up a keyboard to your computer and record a song you may accidentally hit an incorrect note. If the keyboard is hooked up to the computer you can go in and correct the wrong note. If you are simply recording the sound of your keyboard through the microphone you do not have this capability. The actual notes were never entered into the program.

How to Record RingtonesAfter you have the correct number of tracks you’ll be using you’re ready to record. To begin recording a song click on the track that you would like to record to and click the red “Record” button at the bottom of the screen. You can use the metronome to stay on track, or you can mute it if that is easier. You can then play or sing your song. After you have finished you can listen to the song and decide if there are any modifications you’d like to make. You can then re-record the song if you’d like, or simply mute that specific track while you record the rest of the tracks.

Edit Your Song

GarageBand has a lot of functionality when it comes to editing songs. As you become more familiar with GarageBand you will find that there are many things you can do to enhance the sound. If you find that a certain part of your song is too loud, or one of the tracks overpowers another track, you can adjust the volume. For instance, if the drums are overpowering the vocalist you can decrease the volume on the drums or increase the volume on the vocalist. If there is a certain part of your song you want to re-record without having to record the whole thing you can cut and splice the song to delete certain parts. You can also change the key of your song, and even add sound effects.

Export Your Song

After you have finished recording your song in GarageBand you can export it to iTunes to create your own custom ring tone. Make sure you have the current version of your song saved. Click “Share” on the top menu and click “Send Song to iTunes”. Choose the location for the file. You will then see your original song in your iTunes library. To be able to use this song as a ring tone you need to change a few settings and convert it to a different type of file.

Right click on your song in iTunes and choose “Create AAC Version”. This will create the ring tone in your iTunes library. In order for it to be compatible with cell phone ring tones it must be changed from an “m4a” format to an “m4r” format. This can be done by either using a new Finder window if you use a Mac, or by opening My Computer on a PC. After the format is changed it will be downloaded to the correct folder in iTunes and will be ready to download to your phone.

Everyone can be unique and express their individuality through their custom recorded ring tone. By using GarageBand and iTunes, you can create a customized ring tone that showcases your talent without paying a dime.

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