One of the things that I love to customize on my iPhone is the ringtone. Call me cheap, but I don’t necessarily like to pay for them on iTunes. Not only that, but you are locked into using the section of the song that iTunes picks for that particular ringtone. Where is the fun in that if you have to pay for something you don’t necessarily want?
That is why I like to use a very handy app named Dring, which lets you make your own custom ringtones. It is very easy to use and best of all, it saves you money from having to pay for those tones. Let me show you more of the app and how it works after the jump.
Creating Your Ringtone
There are three main ways that you can create these ringtones for your iPhone. The first is using the music that you have stored on your device. Once you select a song that you want to use, you then can choose a specific portion (up to 40 seconds long) of it to use. Fading in and out of the music is another feature that you can choose to add as well.
Selecting a song (left) Creating ringtone (right)
Second, if you want to get a little creative, you can record your own sounds or voice and use that as your ringtone. Again, just like with the music, you can select a part or all of the recording that you create. Finally, if you really want to get creative, you can mix a song and your recording together into one ringtone. This is a really cool feature to add because it gives you the ability to do a lot of fun stuff with your ringtones.
Recording your voice (left) Mixing voice and music into one ringtone (right)
Exporting and Using Your Ringtone
Once you are done creating your masterpiece — er, I mean, ringtone — you are now ready to export and use it. This process can get a little tricky, so the developers have provided a video for you to watch to help you out. Basically, there are two ways to export your ringtone and then get it back to your iPhone.
First, you can choose to connect your iPhone by USB or through Wi-Fi to your computer and iTunes. Then you can get the ringtone file from your iTunes library on your computer, and put it back into iTunes so you can sync it to your phone. I know this sounds a bit confusing, and that is why they made the video. You would think that if you make the ringtone on your phone that you could just select it when you are done and not even have to use iTunes, but that is not the case.
Exporting your ringtone (left) Video to show you how (right)
The second way to export your tone is through emailing it to yourself, which, in my opinion, is actually a little easier procedure to follow. Once the file is sent, you can save it to your computer and then upload it to iTunes to use. The nice part about having this option is that you can also email the ringtone to whoever you want and they can easily use it as theirs.
Emailing ringtone
One of the Best
About a year ago, Dring was featured on our site as one of the best apps to create ringtones and I wholeheartedly agree. It is one of those apps that have been around for a long time, but kind of flies under the radar. Why? I’m not sure many people choose to take the time to make their own ringtones anymore now that the App Store sells them. I love that I can not only use my music, but I also have the option to record something and mix it in with my selection. I have found that it is so simple to use and it isn’t loaded with too many unnecessary features that can get in the way.
The only thing that I would change, which I am not sure the developers have any control over this, is the process in which the ringtone gets put back onto your iPhone. As I was looking at the recent reviews of this app, many people are complaining how they have no idea how to get the ringtone onto their iPhone after they have made it. Of course, in an ideal world, you would be able to create and save the ringtone and it would be ready for you to select in the Settings. But unfortunately, for whatever technical reason, we don’t live in that world and so people just need to take the 5 mins to learn how to actually get their ringtones onto their phone.
Conclusion
Overall, Dring is a very solid app to use to create your own ringtones. If you are one who is always buying them on the App Store, you should seriously take a look at this app. It will definitely help you save some money in the long run.