I have a ton of mp3 format audio files on my Mac OS X system and want to chop a short segment out of it to use as a custom ringtone for my Apple iPhone. What’s the solution?
An mp3 audio file as a custom ringtone on your iPhone, eh? Sounds like a great topic for a tutorial and it’s one I’ve tackled in another article (see Add a custom ringtone to your Apple iPhone), as part of my extensive iPhone help series. But for today, let’s focus on the audio file itself.
What I’ve done is grabbed an audio file to play with, the terrific theme from the Harry Potter movie series, which I found on an Alan Rickman fan site (Alan plays Severous Snape in the movies). Here’s a link so you can grab it yourself if you’d like: the audio file is called “Harry Potter Theme” and it’s found on this page.
Yes, it’s likely that they’re violating copyright by having the file available on this fan site, but that’s why I’m linking to their site not offering up this audio myself. Download the file at your own risk, however.
Once you have this — or any other audio file — you want to edit, it’s time to get the terrific cross-platform program Audacity.
Now open up the music file in Audacity and you’ll see something very like this:
A complex and sophisticated audio editing program, but fortunately all we need to do is use the play and stop buttons to identify the exact range of the segment we desire. Listening carefully, and zooming in (with the magnifying glass tool) lets you figure out exactly what each “bump” in the waveform represents in the music. Pick out the beginning and end you want, then click and drag to select just that segment of the audio file. It’ll look like this:
To test it, I simply click on the play button and Audacity plays that short segment and nothing else. Pegged it? Let’s keep going. (if not, then keep fiddling until you get the segment you desire highlighted. It can take a few attempts, in my experience).
With this particular audio clip, it’s kinda soft, so a smart way to make it louder is to turn up the gain. Lacking a physical amplifier, we can emulate the same behavior by dragging the “gain” slider to +9db or even higher. Here I am increasing it to +12db:
Just about done, believe it or not. Now just select File –> Export Selection As… and choose “mp3”:
Give it a good descriptive name and you should be able to drag it into iTunes or your favorite Web browser and listen to just your little snippet of the larger audio file. Here’s how iTunes shows it when I check out the 8-second ringtone I extracted from the longer audio file:
(Want to hear what I created? Click here)
That’s all you should need to do to extract audio snippets from your longer audio material. Audacity can work with a variety of formats, but if you find your music is inaccessible, you might also check out my article on audio conversion solutions for the Mac. Again, if you do want to drop this onto your iPhone as a custom ringtone, check out How to add a custom ringtone to your Apple iPhone too.
Thanks for the e-mail Dave
but if it was written with hand
and not automatic reply like the rest
To get a piece of an mp3 file or any other thing that plays a sound in the speakers
you don’t need to download any software ; Windows has already provided it , here is the tip :
– Win+R key to open the run box .
– type sndVol32 and hit OK.
– when the volume controls appear go to
OPTINS > PROPERTIES
– select RECORDING radio button
– then look at the area SHOW THE FOLLOWING VOLUME CONTORLES bellow the radio button
and make sure that STEREO MIX option is checked and hit OK.
– now in the volume contorles window that is devided in vertical sections;
under the the STEREO MIX section check SELECT option
and adjust the volume as you wish but don’t mute it
– your done..live the controls window open and continue.
———————————————————–
– Once again Win+R and type sndRec32 in the run box and give it OK click
– once the windows sound recorder application shows up , then you have completed the 2nd step
———————————————————–
– now go to your mp3 file and open it in your player and rewind it back to the beginning
– when you decide which part you need to crop play your mp3
and hit the record button on the sound recorder application
but remember:
when you hit the record button that will be the start point of your croped mp3 file
and when reaching the final part you need , just hit the stop button
then test your file by playing it in the recorder to get setisfied
– Finally save it to a wav file and convert it later as you wish
but don’t forget to go back to the volume controls window
to check the SELECT options under the microphone section or you
might be unable to record through your mic.
Thanks so much!!! The only thing is that you may want to mention that you also have to download the LAME converter. Perhaps this wasn’t something you needed to do before? Anyways, you’re a lifesaver!