Ringtones 101
September 12th, 2006 MobileFreak
With the ever-increasing types of ringtones available for today’s cell phones, users now have a number of ways to personalize the sound of their phone.
I will not waste your time telling you about the latest top 40 ringtones that anyone can get from the thousands of websites that offer them today, or to one of the Jordin Sparks ringtones sites out there. In future articles, I will discuss the truly unique things you can do with your cell phone or mobile device. Now, let’s get right into the different types of ringtones out there just to get our feet wet.
You may have seen the terms monophonic ringtones, polyphonic ringtones, realtones, and master tones. No need to get into the underlying technical details of each type, so here’s a quick primer:
- Monophonic ringtones play one note at a time. There are no harmonies and no voices with these types of ringtones.
- Polyphonic ringtones go one step further by adding harmonies to the song.
- Realtones, or real-life ringtones, include real sounds such as voices and other “real†sounds.
- Mastertones, the most advanced type of ringtones, are clips of actual songs, just as you would hear on your stereo. Mastertones are typically compressed to save space.
- Ringback tones are slightly different in that you set this type of tone that you want your callers to hear when they call you. This tone is played to the caller until either you answer the call or your voicemail picks up. Ringback tones are a more recent development and provide another creative way to personalize your mobile phone.
Most ringtone providers charge anywhere from $1 to $3 for a ringtone, though the monthly subscription option is also very popular. Subscription services may offer incentives of anywhere from 1 to 15 free ringtones upon signing up for the service. Now that we’ve got the basic ringtone terminology down, we’ll get into the more interesting uses of unique ringtones in future articles.
Entry Filed under: Ringtones
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