How to Convert an iPhone Voice Memo into a Ringtone

So, I thought it would be cool to record my friends' voices as my ringtones. With the built in iPhone Voice Memo it was very east to get the recordings but I had to do some trouble-shooting to figure out how to convert the recordings into ringtones... it's possible and here's how:

1) Sync your iPhone to your computer and iTuens will come up. All of your Voice Memos from your iPhone will show up in the Music f

older.

2) Go to your Music Library and you should see all of your Voice Memos. We want to locate this file in the folder that it is stored in.

3) Go to your Music folder --> iTunes --> iTunes Music --> Voice Memo

4) Find the Voice Memo that you want to convert into a ringtone.

5) Click it and change the .m4a extension to .m4r. A warning window will pop and ask you if want to change the extension... choose Use .m4r.

6) Double-click the file you just converted and it will automatically show up in your Ringtones folder in iTunes.

7) Now all you need to do is sync your ringtones with your iPhone and there you have it... your voice memo is now a ringtone and you can record more than just your voice or someone else's voice... the sky is the limit. I have recorded clips from live concerts, birds chirping, sirens, whatever I come across each day!

How to Make an iTunes Song a Ringtone for Your iPhone 3G

Ok, so I totally broke down and just bought the 16GB iPhone 3G and the 13" MacBook Pro laptop and I'm learning all sorts of fun stuff you can do with the two of them together. I plan to post as much as I can when finding out something creative I think other users might want to do.

One of the first things I wanted to do was create my own custom ringtones so I could identify with who was calling. So there were a few things I wanted to try... I wanted to be able to convert one of my iTunes songs into a ringtone, I wanted to be able to record my own audio using GarageBand, and I wanted to be able to convert a Voice Memo into a ringtone. Turns out all three are very possible with some creative solutions.

So lets begin with the first one...

How to Convert an iTunes Song Into a Ringtone for Your iPhone 3G:

1) Open up iTunes.

2) Go to the Album and find the song you want to record. In my case I chose the Beastie Boys album License to Ill and the song Rhymin & Stealin.

3) Play the song and find the part that you want to record... you can use the scrubber to scroll to the part you want. I chose the beginning of my song. You should try to keep in mind that ringtones should be under 40 seconds. Be sure to write down the start and stop times of the part you want to record... you will need this later.

4) CTLR-click on the song and choose Get Info.

5) A new window will pop open, be sure you are click the Options tab at the top.

6) Enter the Start and Stop Times and be sure both of them are checked. Then click OK.

7) CTRL-click your song and select Create AAC Version. iTunes will convert song and create a duplicate version.

8) CTRL-click the ringtone you created and choose Delete and then click Keep Files.

9) Now got to your Finder and navigate to the file we just created. It will most likely be in the iTunes folder. Go to Music-->iTunes-->iTunes Music-->Album (in my case Beastie Boys).

10) The file you are looking for will have the extension m4a... you want to rename the file so it has the extension m4r.

11) Once you have renamed the file, double-click it and iTunes will put it into the Ringtones folder.

12) Now that it's in your Ringtones folder all you need to do is sync your iPhone to your computer... now you have your favorite song as your ringtone!