How to make an iPhone ringtone with Fission
Mac Tip #470, 19 January 2011

Sure you can buy ringtones for your iPhone, but how about if you want to make your own? It’s really easy, especially with a handy piece of software called Fission.

Fission edits audio

Rogue Amoeba’s Fission costs US$32, but try it for free first. I use it for occasional jobs where I want to edit an audio file:

With Fission’s streamlined audio editing, you can quickly copy, paste and trim audio, as well as split files. Fission also works with compressed MP3 and AAC formats to edit without the quality loss caused by other editors. Get perfect quality audio when editing natively in the MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV formats.

Use the Save as iPhone Ringtone command in Fission.

Trim an audio file

Record some audio of your own or find an audio file you want to make a ringtone from. Make sure you understand the copyright laws in your country if you plan to use a piece of commercial music.

To use a piece of audio for a ringtone you may first need to edit it to a suitable length. Open your audio file into Fission, then:

1. Click the Select tool on Fission’s Toolbar, or choose Select Mode from the Tools menu.
2. Drag across the audio in the lower part of the Fission window to select the portion you need.
3. Click the Crop button on Fission’s Toolbar, or choose Crop from the Clip menu. The file is cropped down to the selected portion.

Save as iPhone Ringtone

Choose Save as iPhone Ringtone from the File menu. Fission creates a ringtone and saves it to iTunes, under Ringtones. If iTunes is not already open, it may open automatically.

Check the settings for your iPhone next time you synchronise, to make sure the ringtone is sent to your device.

And remember to actually choose the ringtone on your iPhone.

A free app to make ringtones

I haven’t tried it out, but Rogue Amoeba, who make Fission, have a free app called MakeiPhoneRingtone available, just for making ringtones:

MakeiPhoneRingtone is a quick drag and drop utility to turn AAC files into ringtones for your iPhone. Make ringtones from audio you already own, instead of purchasing it again and again.

Fission Recommended

While MakeiPhoneRingtone is still available, we recommend using Fission for more robust ringtone editing and creation. Fission does not require AAC files (as MakeiPhoneRingtone does) and will work with almost any audio file.

Tell us in the Comments at the website how this Tip worked out for you.