Create iPhone Ringtone using Mac's GarageBand '08 app

If you have a Macintosh, you can also create your own ringtones without paying

anything to anyone—by using GarageBand, the music-editing program

that comes on every new Mac (version ’08 or later).

Start by building the ringtone itself. You can use GarageBand’s Loops (prerecorded

instrumental snippets designed to sound good together), for

example, or sound you’ve recorded with a microphone. (There’s nothing like

the prerecorded sound of your spouse’s voice barking out from the phone:

“HONEY! PICK UP! IT’S ME!” every time your beloved calls.)

If you’re not especially paranoid about record-company lawyers, you can also

import any song at all into GarageBand—an MP3, AIFF, MIDI, or non-copyprotected

AAC file, for example—and adapt a piece of it into a ringtone.

That’s one way for conscientious objectors to escape the $1-per-ringtone

surcharge.

In any case, once you have your audio laid out in GarageBand tracks, press the

letter C key. That turns on the Cycle strip—the yellow bar in the ruler shown

below. Drag the endpoints of this Cycle strip to determine the length of your

ringtone (up to 40 seconds long).

Tip

One feature that’s blatantly missing on the iPhone is a “vibrate, then ring” option.

That’s where, when a call comes in, the phone first vibrates silently to get your

attention, and then begins to ring out loud only if you still haven’t responded after,

say, 10 seconds.

GarageBand offers the solution. Create a ringtone that’s silent for the first 10

seconds (drag the Cycle strip to the left of the music), and only then plays a sound.

Then set your iPhone to “vibrate and ring.” When a call comes in, the phone plays

the ringtone immediately as it vibrates—but you won’t hear anything until after

the silent portion of the ringtone has been “played.”

Press the Space bar to start and stop playback as you fiddle with your

masterpiece.

When everything sounds good, choose Share ----> Send Ringtone to iTunes.

Source: iPhone The Missing Manual by David Pogue