Make your own mobile phone ringtones

Even if you ignore half the features in your mobile phone, the ringtone is one thing that’s always worth changing. At the very least, you want to avoid being in the sad group of people patting their pockets when the default ringtone is heard in a crowd. At best, you want a tune that makes you glad to receive a call. While the tones that come with your phone are unlikely to fit the bill, it’s easy to create something that does by turning one of your CD tracks into a ringtone.

The process is great deal more straightforward than you might think. Finding a track is simply a matter of copying it from a CD and saving it as an MP3 file – the format that nearly all phones support. You don’t need to download any specialist software to do this – Windows Media Player will be fine – but it’s worth spending a bit of time picking a suitable tune before you start.

Choose something distinctive but tolerable (remember that particularly rich sounds aren’t going to sound very impressive on tinny speakers) and try to pick a few bars that you can stand being cut off mid-tune. It’s a small thing, but I find it can get wearing cutting off one of your favourite tracks mid-note every time you pick up the phone.

The only practical consideration you will have is how you’re going to transfer your MP3 from your phone to your PC. There are a number of ways that this can be carried out. Most phones now come with a USB cable that attaches the handset directly to your PC. Alternatively you can use an infra-red or a Bluetooth connection to carry out the transfer. Read on to see how you can get started with some of the more common phones on the market...

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Sony Ericsson W850i

1. Click to add. This handset comes with its own software utility, called Disc2Phone, which enables you to get the track from PC to phone in just a few clicks.

2. Choose audio. Click My Music and select the location where your track is stored – this can be a CD. Click on the remove button to stop selected tracks being transferred.

3. Connect your phone. Choose the bit rate that will be used for the transfer. The higher the rate, the bigger the file. Using the supplied USB cable, attach the phone to the PC.

4. Transfer file. On the handset you’ll see USB connection on the display. Select File transfer and you are ready. Once the transfer is finished, close Disc2Phone on the PC and disconnect the USB cable.

5. Select the tone. Go to File Manager on the handset, open Music, and find and select the track. Click on More, go down to Use as and choose Ringtone.

Orange SPV C600

1. Move files. This phone uses the Windows Mobile operating system, so the easiest way to get files on to it is to open Computer in Windows Vista then drag and drop.

2. Choose a preferred file type. As you might expect, this set accepts Windows Media Audio format. If you rip from a CD using Media Player you can switch between WMA and MP3 under the Rip Music tab in Options.

3. Browse your phone. Connect your set to the PC with a USB cable. The set will appear in Computer, and you can browse its contents as if you were using another drive.

4. Copy file. On this phone you need to copy your WMA track to the Application Data\ Sounds folder. You can cut and paste your file or use drag and drop to save it here.

Motorola RAZR MAXX V6

1. Try Bluetooth. Although your phone may come with a cable there’s nothing to stop making use of other types of connection. If your PC has Bluetooth capabilities, you can also use this to transfer your tracks.

2. If you want to edit a track... Not only can this Motorola model make use of MP3, to save you converting, it even comes with with a utility called Multimedia Studio, which can be used to edit your MP3 files.

3. ...cut here. If you want to use the chorus or a hook, click on Melody Studio then choose the MP3 file you’re going to use. Select the Crop tool to save the section of the song you want.

4. Begin the transfer. For Bluetooth transfer, use the settings on your PC to pair up with your phone. Once you’ve done this, send the file across. Make sure you use the same PIN on the handset and your PC.

5. Finally. Select Multimedia then Multimedia Finder. Browse to the folder where you received the file from the PC. Locate it, then click on Options and select Apply As Ring Tone to start using it.

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