Category Archives: Windows Phone

How to Make a Custom Ringtone for Windows Phone 8.1

To complete this procedure I used Audacity 2.0.5 open source software on a PC running Windows 8.1 Update.  The phone I used was a Nokia Lumia 635.

Select the Required Section of the Track

  • Open your MP3 file in Audacity.
  • Play the track and note the start and finish time for the section of the track you want to use as a ringtone (typically about a 30 second chunk).
  • In Audacity, click in the waveform area at the noted start time.
  • Hold the shift key and then click at the noted end time – the required section of the track should now be highlighted.
  • Press the spacebar to play the highlighted area and then adjust the required section of the track as required.
  • Ensure the required section of track is highlighted once you have tweaked the start/finish time.

Trim the Start and Finish

  • From the Edit menu select Remove Audio or Labels and then Trim Audio – just the required section of the track should now be displayed.

Note:  There is no need move the start of the remaining section of the track to zero as the white space before and after will be removed automatically.

Fade In

  • Click in the waveform area about 1 second before the end of the track.
  • From the Edit menu select Select and then Cursor to end of Track End.
  • From the Effect menu select Fade Out.

Fade Out

  • Click in the waveform area about 1 second into the track.
  • From the Edit menu select Select and then Track Start to Cursor.
  • From the Effect menu select Fade In.

Export/Save

  • From the File menu click Export and save the MP3 file as normal.

Find on Phone

  • Connect the phone to the PC (open File Explorer and the phone should be listed once connected).
  • Browse to the Ringtones folder and copy in the saved MP3 file.
  • On the Windows phone access Settings, Ringtones+Sounds, Ringtone and the imported MP3 file should appear in the list of ringtones under the Custom heading.

Note:  It is possible to convert other audio file types to MP3 using Audacity as long as the LAME plugin is used.  See the Audacity website for details:  http://audacity.sourceforge.net.