[PlanetCCRMA] selfmade ringingtones

[Brad Fuller]

Louis van Dompselaar wrote:

> It would largely depend on the type of phone which type of ringtone it
> will take.  Most modern phones take MIDI files (type 0) without problems.
>
> Older phones need dedicated file formats which requires dedicated 
> software,
> which I doubt is available on Linux.  I used the Yamaha software at one
> point (which is Windows-only).
>
>
> jan hendrik brueggemeier wrote:
>
>> hi there,
>>
>> i am preparing a series of workshop for kids for diy-media-production 
>> and it
>> would be great fun to get them on producing their own ringingtones 
>> for their
>> cellular-phones (it would really help them saving their pocket money 
>> ..).
>> unfortunately i have never made one ringingtone myself and i wonder if
>> anybody here has experience with making ringingtones on linux and knows
>> useful software for that task and would like to share her or his 
>> knowledge
>> with me?
>
It's difficult to answer since, as Louis says, it's highly dependent on 
their particular phone. It's certainly a great idea to get kids involved 
with something that they would use and would be excited about. Many 
recent phones (within the last 6 months) have the ability to play GM 
Midi files as a ringtone. But, for consumers, one of the problems is 
getting the  file to the phone. Most have to purchase a cable to connect 
their phone<-->PC. And some mfrs charge $40 for the cable!

You might ask your students what phones they have. Maybe if there are 
enough that support Midi as a ringtone -and- it's easy for them to 
transfer the file to the phone, you might go for it. In any case, it 
would be fun even if there was only one phone that the class could 
experiment with.
For the software, why not use Rosegarden or Muse, and use a GM soundfont 
with a synth that supports soundfonts, like qsynth?

(on a related note: Qualcomm has announced that they are supporting 
Linux on their MSM6550 chip set. Hmmmm...Alsa and jack running on a cell 
phone? Interesting:  
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/news/1260004997D0.xhtml)

-- 
Brad Fuller
(408) 799-6124
** Sonaural Audio Studios **
(408) 799-6123  West San Jose
(408) 799-6124  Cambrian
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