Hack65.Fun with Ringtones

Hack 65. Fun with Ringtones

Are you tired of that boring, old "ring-ring" sound Skype makes? Change it to something new and funky!

Works with: Windows version of Skype.

Now you can buy ringtones directly through Skype as part of its Personalise Skype service: http://personal.skype.com/wnf/t74us/0/m. But at $1.20 for each ringtone you purchase, it's a form of customization that can get expensive quickly.

The good news is that you can very easily make your own ringtones, and this hack shows you how.

Skype uses .wav files (that is, files with a .wav extension, which denotes a Windows audio file format) for ringtones. But there are a couple of restrictions: they must be mono and not stereo, they must be of short duration (seconds, not minutes), and the recordings must be made at relatively low sample rates, and therefore have a small file size.

Ringtones are distinctive sounds that signal certain events in Skype. By going to Skype Tools Options… Sounds (see Figure 7-1) you can change the ringtones that are associated with those events.

Figure 7-1. Setting up ringtones for specific Skype events

Few people realize that by default, Windows comes with a whole bunch of "ringtones" that you can use with Skype. In fact, these "ringtones" are the default sounds you hear for certain Windows events and other sounds, but you can use them as ringtones within Skype. To use these ringtones with Skype, go to Skype Tools Options… Sounds, and click on one of the middle buttons opposite the Skype event. So, for example, to change the sound for "ringtone to something different, click on the middle button opposite the word ringtone. This will display the My Sounds window (see Figure 7-2). Click on Browse…, and a file navigation and select dialog will appear. Navigate to C:\Windows\Media\ and pick one of the .wav filessay, tada.wav. The word tada will be added to the list in the My Sounds window. Select it and click OK. Now, whenever you receive an incoming call, Skype will repeatedly play the "ta-da" sound until you pick up or cancel the call. Windows comes with a small but adequate number of .wav sound files that you can use as ringtones within Skype. And they're all free!

In terms of creating your own ringtones for Skype, you have several options. I cover three of them in the following three sections.

Figure 7-2. Choosing a ringtone sound for a Skype event (in this case, Ringtone, which is the sound you hear when an incoming call rings)

Note that ringtones don't travel. That is, if you log onto Skype on a different machine under your usual Skype nameand for which you've set up custom ringtonesyou will have only the default Skype ringtones available to you.

7.2.1. Use Windows Recorder

Windows Recorder is a utility that comes with Windows (select Start All Programs Accessories Entertainment Sound Recorder). This simple sound recorder takes sound input from, and outputs sound to, whatever sound devices you have configured in Windows (select Start Control Panel Sounds and Audio Devices). By feeding music, other sounds, or your voice into Windows Recorder, you can create a Effects).

To hear a simple ringtone I made using Windows Recorder, download woop-woop-woop.wav from the book's web site, http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/SkypeHacks/index.html (see Figure 7-3).

Figure 7-3. Use Windows Recorder to create your own Skype ringtones

To use with Skype the ringtones you create using Windows Recorder, simply put your .wav files in a convenient location and follow the procedure outlined earlier for Windows' own .wav files.

7.2.2. Find Free .wav Files to Use as Skype Ringtones

Googling on "free .wav (ringtones OR "sound effects")" will produce a lot of hits. However, one website I particularly like for its free Skype-compatible ringtones is at http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/. Partners In Rhyme is a web site that has lots of royalty-free music and sound effects. Clicking on the Free Sound Effects link on the home page will display a page of sound effects, by category (see Figure 7-4). Partners In Rhyme is a source of literally hundreds of sounds that you can use either directly as Skype ringtones, or as ringtones after you've converted them to the proper audio file format (discussed shortly).

To use with Skype the ringtones that are freely available on the Internet, simply download .wav-format files (remember, they must be mono, not stereo) to your hard disk at a convenient location and follow the procedure outlined earlier for Windows' own .wav files.

7.2.3. Convert Ringtones from Other Formats to .wav

Many commercial, free, and open source audio file conversion utilities are availablejust try Googling on "sound file conversion software" and you'll be overwhelmed with choices. However, one audio file conversion utility I can recommend is SoX. This open source utility, which you can download at http://sourceforge.net/projects/sox/, boasts of being the Swiss army knife of sound-file conversion utilities. And frankly, this is no idle boast!

SoX is a command-line utility that has a multitude of command-line options for twiddling with and fine-tuning audio file-format conversions. From echo to reverb effects, and from stretching sounds to changing their sample rate, SoX can do it all. Even so, for simple, no-frills conversions from one audio file format to another, SoX makes the task easy.

Figure 7-4. The Partners In Rhyme web site has lots of royalty-free sound effects that you can download and use as Skype ringtones

Here's an example of how easy it is:

1. Download a sound from http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/ that isn't in .wav formatsay, gunshots.aiff (an Apple audio format file), from the Fight Sounds category.

2. Open a command prompt window (select Start All Programs Accessories Command Prompt).

3. Run this command at the prompt: sox gunshots.aiff gunshots.wav.

4. To use your newly created ringtone, gunshots.wav, follow the procedure outlined earlier for Windows' own .wav files.

Of course, this example assumes you have already downloaded SoX-win from http://sourceforge.net/projects/sox/ and placed sox.exe somewhere on your execution path.