I stumbled across an interesting thread on the internet that describes the ‘say‘ command of Mac OS X, and with a bit more research, I was able to piece together the steps required to make a geeky ringtone. I had completely forgotten about the ‘say‘ command, basically because I really never use it on a day to day basis. Although forgotten, it still remains a functional command to have at the ready for developmental use.
Dependencies: None.
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Guide:
Creating your own geeky ringtone is really quite simple. You will need to choose a voice for a start, and I have composed a list below.
Syntax: say [-v VoiceName] “Statement to speak”
Female Voices
$ say -v Agnes "hello world"$ say -v Kathy "hello world"$ say -v Princess "hello world"$ say -v Vicki "hello world"$ say -v Victoria "hello world"
Male Voices
$ say -v Bruce "hello world"$ say -v Fred "hello world"$ say -v Junior "hello world"$ say -v Ralph "hello world"
Novelty Voices
$ say -v Albert "hello world"$ say -v "Bad News" "hello world"$ say -v Bahh "hello world"$ say -v Bells "hello world"$ say -v Boing "hello world"$ say -v Bubbles "hello world"$ say -v Cellos "hello world"$ say -v Deranged "hello world"$ say -v "Good News" "hello world"$ say -v Hysterical "hello world"$ say -v "Pipe Organ" "hello world"$ say -v Trinoids "hello world"$ say -v Whisper "hello world"$ say -v Zarvox "hello world"
Once you have decided upon the voice that you fancy, and what phrase your voice will emulate, all that remains are a few steps to complete the ringtone.
1. Simply launch Application › Utilities › Terminal.app
The following example will produce a aiff (Audio Interchange File Format) file that will be suitable for converting into a ringtone.
say -v Zarvox -o MyRingTone.aiff "Your mobile is talking to you"
2. To convert your produced aiff file into a ringtone, simply import your file into iTunes by selecting File › Add to Library.
3. Once the file has successfully imported, locate the file within your iTunes ‘Music’ folder by simply choosing Music, and then from the iTunes toolbar, select View › As List. This will display all of your music files in a detailed view.
Select and highlight your aiff file, then right click on the file, and select ‘Create AAC Version. (Note: Your import settings must be set to ‘AAC Encoder’. iTunes › Preferences › Import Settings › Import Using).
Once completed, an additional file with the same name will appear in your Music folder, only with a m4a extension.
4. Launch Finder to locate your newly created m4a file. Select your home folder, then navigate to Music › iTunes › iTunes Media › Music › Unknown Artist › Unknown Album.
5. Simply rename the file’s extension from m4a to m4r. The m4r format is recognised by both iTunes and the iPhone as a proper ringtone. Once completed, all that remains is to import your new ringtone properly into iTunes by selecting File › Add to Library.
Your new ringtone should now appear in the iTunes ‘Ringtones’ section. Simply sync your iPhone to introduce the new ringtone onto your mobil.
