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Ringtones
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ringtone Mult: ringtones
Pronunciation:['ri[ng]-tOn] or [ri[ng]-'tOn]
Etymology: combination of words 'ringing' and 'tone'
Meaning: piece of audio (either in a wave or a synthesized form), which gets played by a mobile device during a specific incoming event:
call, incoming short message (SMS), multimedia message, etc. (not all phones allow playing ringtones for incoming messages, usually they just beep)
Most current phones support downloadable ringtones.
A ringtone may consist of notes, audio samples or both. A number of phones support vibration, which is described as a note played with the vibration battery (as if it was an instrument).
Types of Ringtones
Note-based ringtones. Contain only information about music events (notes, instructions and instruments) comprising the ringtone. Can be monophonic, i.e. at any given point of time only one event (note or pause) is played; and polyphonic, when several note events can play at the same time. Polyphony level is the maximum number of events the phone can handle simultaneously. Instant polyphony level is the number of events active at a given time.
Examples:
- monophonic: RTTTL, Nokia Smart Messaging, Sagem Mono, Motorola proprietary, IMelody, emelody
- polyphonic: MIDI, SP-MIDI, SMAF (without PCM samples), Sagem Poly, CMX (without PCM samples)
PCM ringtones (also known as realtones, truetones, mastertones, voicetones and other brand names you'll never remember). Contain actual sound in the original audio wave form. PCM tones can contain much more information than note-based ringtones (because certain sounds like human speech and sound effects generally can't be described as a note played by some instrument) , but it comes at a price: PCM files are bigger than note-based files. The term "polyphony" is not applicable to PCM ringtones: they can be monophonic or stereophonic (we're yet to see 5.1 ringtones, but who knows?).
Examples: MP3, AMR, QCP, AAC, SMAF (PCM-only), CMX (PCM-only), WAVE
Mixed ringtones. They take the best of both worlds: they have an ability to describe standard sounds like notes and to embed custom PCM samples into the music resulting in smaller files and good quality.
Examples: SMAF, CMX
CD Music and Ringtones
A number of companies offer consumers the software allowing to create a PCM ringtone from a CD or from an MP3 file. Generally, this process consists
of the following steps:
- rip the music
- identify a 10-30-second piece of the music file
- decrease audio quality to reduce the file size.
However, there's one issue with this approach: not all songs make good ringtones. It's hard to stress this point enough. Yes, most consumers
are comfortable listening to 128 or 192 kBps music on their MP3 players, so they don't expect too much from ringtones made from the piece of
the music file, but this 'good enough' approach is hardly the best. Yes, it's cheap (since you don't have to cough up $3 or more per ringtone),
but in most cases the specially crafted PCM ringtones made by the composer or with the composer's blessing sound much better: they emphasize the parts
that are to be emphasized, and suppress the music 'noise'. Essentially, a ringtone is not just a piece of a song - it's a separate composition
inspired by the song.
How Ringtones Get Played
Different types of ringtones (see above) get played by different ways, and the result is also different.
- Note-based ringtones: each event gets synthesized by the phone according either to the formula corresponding to each instrument (basically, imitating the sound of a particular instrument) or to the audio sample of the same event (stored in the phone's sound bank - a collection of all instruments and sounds). The sound gets synthesized in real time and immediately sent to the phone speaker.
- PCM ringtones: the ringtone gets converted into the uncompressed form and then routed directly to the phone speaker.
- Mixed ringtones: first the process described for Note-Based Ringtones takes place, and then the resulting audio stream gets mixed with the PCM samples (also in real time) and get played by the phone speaker.
The major difference is the quality. One may argue that polyphonic ringtones generally sound more clearly than PCM ringtones, another one will oppose this statement with the opposite example - the thing is that you will never hear the unbiased truth. Here are some facts:
- Playback of a monophonic, polyphonic or a mixed ringtone depends on the sound bank built into the phone and on the synthesizer (formulas, algorithms, processing speed, etc.). PCM ringtones don't require the phone to make any guesswork - only to uncompress it and send to the speaker.
- PCM ringtones can contain any kind of sound, and in a few cases if the phone supports polyphonic ringtones with the polyphony of 16 and PCM ringtones, and if the source ringtone has the polyphony of 40, sometimes it makes sense to synthesize the sound with a good sound bank on a computer and send the resulting PCM file to the phone supporting only 16 voices.
Ringback Tones
Ringback tones (AKA ringbacks) are ringtones that are played to a caller before the subscriber picks up the phone. Ringbacks are
different from regular ringtones in a number of ways:
- Their quality doesn't depend on the subscriber's or the caller's phone model
- Even landline phones can utilize this feature
- Person who's hearing the ringback is the caller, not the subscriber (subscriber can have a different ringtone playing on his/her cell phone)
- They're a carrier-specific feature: if the carrier doesn't provide them, there's nothing you can do. It also comes at a nominal charge (like $1/month or so)
The target audience for ringback tones is predominantly teens and young adults.
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