Hey guys and girls, Jessica Dolcourt here with CNET.
This Tap-That-App
is all about making your own ringtones.
Good news is, there are dozens
of good, free programs out there for Android and iPhone.
Ringdroid is one of my Android favorites, and it was also one of the
first.
You pick from all the songs in your music library.
Then drag the
arrows on the waveform to set the start and end times.
You can zoom in
for more precision or manually enter times into the open fields.
Then,
just save the ringtone.
Ringdroid also records sounds to create new
tones.
Luckystar's MP3 Ringtone Maker is almost identical in look and feel,
except that it adds a fade setting, which is nice, but has ads, which
you can ignore.
Sharetones is another fantastic freebie.
It's a shared database of
ringtone timings for songs you already own.
If someone else has edited
the ringtone just-so, you can quickly apply those settings to your
songs to make a ringtone identical to theirs.
Finally there's Mongo Ringtone, but you have to search for it as Top
Ringtone Maker Pro in the Android Market.
This app pairs an online
ringtone store with a voice recorder.
And with a ringtone editor for
your own songs.
Now unfortunately, making iPhone ringtones is harder since you can't
save the file directly to the device like you can on Android.
But all
my picks offer step-by-step instructions.
Ringtone Maker comes with a
fade option, a recorder, and an easy song picker.
Ringtone Star Light
features a timeline and fade tool.
As does Ringtones, which also looks
more polished.
Ringtone Remix is probably my favorite of the bunch.
It's a looker, it
includes album art when available, and it has a button to automatically
carve out a ringtone selection.
There's no fade option, but you can
choose to escalate the ringtone's volume as it plays.
But, uh, I'd stay
away from that one if I were you.
All these iPhone apps are free, but have inexpensive upgrades that cut
the ads and unlock advanced features, such as changing a song's speed
or pitch.
So now you have seven ways to make ringtones on your iPhone or Android
device.
Well?
Get crackin'!
And if you have more suggestions for great
apps you want to see on this show, email Tap That App @ CNET.com.
I'm
Jessica Dolcourt.
Keep on tapping.
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