Garageband Ringtone Project

Instructions:

In this project you will be reinforcing what you know about Garageband and creating two ringtones for a cell phone: one from a song in your iTunes library and one original ringtone.

 

A.  EDITING A SONG TO BE USED AS A RINGTONE

  •  Open GarageBand and create a new iPhone Ringtone (“Example Ringtone”) project from the template chooser window. Name and save your ringtone project.
  • Delete the preset “Jingles” track. Highlight the track by clicking on the track name and press [Command] + [Delete].
  • Use your “Media Browser” in the bottom right of the screen to find a song in your iTunes folder, and select the song you would like to make into a ringtone.
  •  Drag the song from the iTunes window into the GarageBand window. (Note: When the command is executable, you should see a green and white + icon appear). After the track imports, you can begin editing your ringtone.
  •  Using the timeline indicator, select where you would like your ringtone to begin. With your track highlighted, press Command-T to make an edit on the track. You can then select the part of the song before your edit point and press Delete to remove it.
  • Next, find where you would like to end your ringtone. Make your edit point and delete the remainder of the song.  You may wish to adjust the volume levels to have a “fade-in” or “fade-out”.  To do this, hit the triangle icon to expose the volume, and adjust accordingly.
  • The default yellow bar at the top of the GarageBand editing window indicates an 18-second loop. To extend or retract your loop, click and drag the end of the yellow bar. This bar should match the length of your selection.
  • Once you have your portion of the song selected, from the GarageBand menu bar, click Share, “Send Ringtone to iTunes.” Your ringtone will automatically import into the Ringtones playlist in iTunes.
  • Close GarageBand (you may save the file to edit later). Connect your iPhone to your computer. Under the Ringtones tab from your iPhone Device settings, be sure to select your new ringtone (or All ringtones) to sync. Click the Sync button and your new, custom ringtone will be available on your iPhone.

 

B.  MAKING AN ORIGINAL RINGTONE

In this project, you must incorporate the following elements:

–  Your voice

–  Garageband loops and/or sound effects

  •  Begin like you did for the first project, opening a ringtone file and deleting the first track.
  • Spend ten minutes researching original ringtones on Safari as possible ideas for your ringtone.  You might add “funny”, “cool” or “original” to refine your search.
  • Experiment adding your voice on a track.  When you make the new track, ensure you select “Real Instrument”.
  • Go to the “Edit” menu.  Here you can experiment modulating your voice, transforming it, adding echo and reverb, etc.
  • Add appropriate loops and/or background effects from the loops menu.  These should be added in separate tracks.
  • Keep the total time of your ringtone under 18 seconds.  Export the file as a ringtone and add it to iTunes.

 

                           

 

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