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So, I was about to go to bed around 10, but I thought I would see just how easy it was to create a ringtone out of an mp3. I found a tutorial for doing so in Linux, and I was able to easily adapt the instructions for Windows. I used Audacity to trim the mp3s and save them as wav files. Then I used LAME to convert them to the proper quality mp3 files.

FYI: For a RAZR v3, you will need mp3s encoded at 44.1kHz and 64kbps. The tutorials I saw suggest keeping your ringtones at 200kB or less, but I was able to get away with ringtones that were more than twice as large.

After I did the trimming and conversions, I copied them to my phone via Bluetooth. You have to copy the mp3s to the audio folder on the phone. You won’t be able to transfer files to your RAZR with USB, because that only gives you the option to use your RAZR as a modem. It appears Bluetooth is the easiest way to transfer files to a RAZR v3 from a computer.

I bet you’re wondering what songs I made into ringtones. I started off with Ice Ice Baby. Then I went a little more current with I Write Sins Not Tragedies. While looking for Cake’s version of Mahna Mahna, I decided to also make a ringtone out of Short Skirt, Long Jacket. Then I took clips from Seasons of Love and Imagine for Chris. And I finished off my play time with a SexyBack ringtone. I’m not quite as cool as Hersch is with the inline multimedia. As soon as I figure it out, I’ll post the ringtones under a password protected post for the inner circle to utilize. I don’t know if the ringtones are short enough to be legal for free distribution here.

Update: As it happens, both Wired and Lifehacker have tutorials on using Audacity to make ringtones. I’d re-invent the where here, but the beauty of the web is that I don’t have to

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