Free custom ringtones for iPhone 3GS using iTunes

I just got my new iPhone 3GS. As I walked through the Internet to search for ways to custom ringtones for my iPhone 3GS, I found the post written by daniel truly helpful. It works fine for iPhone 3GS, which I did not expect, as it was written on October 6, 2008, months before the availability of iPhone 3GS. And I cannot help but share the method (step by step) below:

Two months ago, I posted a tutorial entitled Free Custom Ringtones for iPhone 3G using only iTunes. Since then, this tutorial has gained great popularity. However, I’ve noticed that there are some differences between the newest version of iTunes – iTunes 8 and its previous versions (get the detailed info from http://www.apple.com). Therefore, it is very necessary to update that tutorial below:

Note: If you are using the purchased iTunes music to create ringtones for your iPhone, you need to get M4P to MP3 converter to help you convert the iTunes protected music to DRM free mp3 first.

To create free iPhone ringtones using iTunes 8:

1. Right click on the song you are going to make into a ringtone and select “Get Info.”

2. Go to the “Options” tab and go down to the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” check boxes. Check both boxes and input the time you want your ringtone to start/stop. The ringtone has to be 30 seconds or less. Click “OK” when you’re done.

3. Right click on your newly “clipped” song and select “Create AAC Version”. Or directly click the “Advanced” tab on the main menu of iTunes 8 and select “Create AAC Version” from the drop-down list. The song will be re-encoded using the start and stop times specified.
Note: If your menu item does not read “Create AAC Version” and reads “Create MP3 Version” or some other format, please go to ”iTunes -> Edit -> Preferences -> General”  and refer to the graphs below:

4. After the song is done encoding, navigate to your iTunes Music folder, locate your song, and drag it to your desktop. After the song is on your desktop go back to iTunes and delete the clipped version from you iTunes library (It won’t delete it from your desktop, it will only remove it from iTunes).

5. Go back the song on your desktop and right click on your song and choose “Properties”. Go to the name and extension section and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (or you can just change the extension right from your desktop).

6. After the extension is changed simply double click on the file to add it to your iTunes library under the ringtones section. Sync your phone with iTunes and you’re done!

If the ringtone section isn’t available, please click “Edit -> Preferences” and refer to the graph below:

Note: Remember to go back into iTunes and uncheck your custom start and stop times for the original version of your song.

How to create free custom ringtones for Apple iPhone 3G using iTunes 8

Remember those good, old days when creating an iPhone ringtone was as easy as renaming a song in your iTunes library to a “.m4r” extension and then syncing it back with your iPhone? No? Well, trust us when we say that iPhone ringtones were never easier (or free-er) to create.

That is, until iTunes 8. With the release of iTunes 8 – which brought with it Genius Playlists – creating iPhone ringtones has once again become a painless process. iTunes 8 allows the user to customize a particular song’s start- and end-time, paving the way for an iPhone ringtone creation “hack” that requires nothing more than iTunes itself.

Keep in mind that iTunes will allow you to create a ringtone from a song downloaded through the iTunes Music Store, but those ringtones come with fees… and no one likes fees. Follow this guide to create free iPhone ringtones for free using nothing more than iTunes.

To create simple, free iPhone ringtones from your iTunes library, follow these steps:

Note: This process works with MP3, ACC, and AIFF files.
Note: Only DRM-free songs can be used with this ringtone creation process.

Any song downloaded from iTunes Music Store will have DRM (Digital Rights Management), so don’t use those songs.
Any song ripped from a CD or downloaded from DRM-free sources (P2P, Amazon, your friend) will work just fine.

1. Fire up iTunes 8

2. Find the song you’d like to turn in to a ringtone

3. Right click on the song

Select “Get Info”

4. Hit the “Options” tab

5. Check both the “Start Time” and “End Time” boxes

6. Specify what time interval you’d like to use as your ringtone clip

7. Click “OK”

Make sure the song you want is still highlighted

8. Click on “Advanced” in your menu bar

9. Select “Create AAC Version” or “Create Apple Lossless Version”

10. A duplicate copy of your song will appear in iTunes – this new song will have the same filename but shorter “Time”

Go back to the original song and uncheck those “Start Time” and “End Time” boxes

11. Drag the duplicate song to your Desktop

12. Once the duplicate song is copied to your Desktop, delete the duplicate file in iTunes

13. On your Desktop, rename the file with the “.m4r” file extension – Use the new extension

This turns your song file into an iPhone ringtone file

14. Your “songname.m4a” file should now be named “songname.m4r”

15. Drag the newly renamed .m4r (songname.m4r) file back into iTunes

16. Drag the file over the “Library” column and release when “Library” becomes highlighted

You have to delete the duplicate song file (Step 12) otherwise iTunes won’t import your new .m4r file

17. You should see your new ringtone under “Ringtones” in iTunes

18. Sync your iPhone to get jiggy with your new iPhone ringtones!

By Will Park via http://www.intomobile.com/2008/10/07/iphone-ringtones-create-free-iphone-ringtones-using-itunes-8.html