Edit Audio Files and Create Your Own Ringtone with Audacity

Setting your own ringtone is the way to make your mobile phone as unique as you are. Besides using the default ringtones provided in your mobile phone or using those large audio files composed by others as ringtones, now you have the chance to edit any existing ringtone or even create your own ringtone.

Ringtone editing software like Cool Edit Pro, Sound Forge etc, provide their users the facility to not only edit the existing ringtones thus adding their own flair but can also make them create their own rightone with their seamless features.

‘Audacity‘ also falls in the same category of audio ringtone editing and recording software which is powerful and easy-to-use. It is an open source software that supports almost all operating systems including Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux etc.

Some of the features that Audacity provide include:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

To download Audacity go to audacityteam.org/download/
This best free audio editor and recorder software is available for Windows Windows 8/7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X 10.5 to 10.11.x and Linux.

Here is the step-by-step process of how-to edit any audio file including your favorite ringtone and convert them to your liking

This feature comes into use especially when you want only a part of the audio file as your ringtone (or) your phone memory is too low to accommodate the full sized ringtone/audio file.

1) Open Audacity and from menu bar options Go to File–>Open… and locate the audio file (supported formats are Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF) which you wanted to edit and click open.

This will import that audio file into Audacity
Note: you can import multiple files at the same time

After importing the audio file your Audacity window changes as below. The name in the title bar changes from Audacity to the file name you have uploaded

For selecting the range of audio you want to edit or listen to, click on Selection Tool from the control toolbox

Then by just clicking and dragging on the audio track (in blue) you can easily set left boundary and right boundaries for your audio file and thus select only the audio you want to play.
You can click on play from control toolbox to listen to your selected audio before confirming to trim the audio file and save it.

After you have successfully selected your desired audio range Go to Edit from menu bar option and select trim. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+t. This will trim your audio file according to your selection and your audio track is now left with the trimmed audio.

At any time you can save your project in AUP format which is the default Audacity Project format.

Now you are all set to export your edited tracks (or) saved projects into suitable audio formats. Audacity readily support to export your tracks into WAV and Ogg Vorbis formats.

But what about MP3 which is most popular way to store music??

As the MP3 encoded algorithm is patented and cannot be legally used in free programs, Audacity does not encode MP3 files directly but it can recognize other MP3 encoders that you can download separately.

All you have to do is obtain the appropriate MP3 encoder for your computer and then show Audacity where it is located.

As a Windows user you have to download LAME MP3 encoder (click to download) and install it which stores lame_enc.dll file into path where you have installed it and then you have to locate this file for Audacity.

Audacity will automatically prompts you to locate your MP3 encoder when you try to export to an MP3 file for the first time. You only need to locate the above dll file once.

Now your can easily export files to MP3 and save them with desired name on to your PC and use them as your ringtones.

To increase the quality and add additional effects to your ringtones or trimmed audio files you have bundle of features which you can access from Effects menu.