Moving old Nokia ringtones to the Apple iPhone

For the last seven years, I have used the 'bach' ringtone on my old Nokia 6230i. Now I have an iPhone 4s, I wanted the option of using the same ring tone. What follows is the procedure I used. I did this all on a Windows PC, but I believe you can also use 'faac' on Linux. Note that this procedure is 'free'.

I download the Nokia 6230i ringtone "Bach.aac" from here:

http://meramob.com/filedownload/2011/41824/Bach.html

I used this online service...

http://media.io/

... to convert the "Bach.aac" to "Bach.wav".

I then downloaded "FAACv1.28 Binary for Win32" as file "faac-1.28-mod.zip" from this site:

http://www.rarewares.org/aac-encoders.php

..and unziped the archive to extract binary executable "faac.exe".

Here is the 'help' for faac:

C:\Temp>faac.exe --help

Freeware Advanced Audio Coder

FAAC 1.28



Usage: faac.exe [options] infiles ...

Options:

  -q   Set quantizer quality.

  -b   Set average bitrate to x kbps. (ABR, lower quality mode)

  -c      Set the bandwidth in Hz. (default=automatic)

  -o X          Set output file to X (only for one input file)

  -r            Use RAW AAC output file.

  -P            Raw PCM input mode (default 44100Hz 16bit stereo).

  -R            Raw PCM input rate.

  -B            Raw PCM input sample size (8, 16 (default), 24 or 32bits).

  -C            Raw PCM input channels.

  -X            Raw PCM swap input bytes

  -I      Input channel config, default is 3,4 (Center third, LF fourth)



MP4 specific options:

  -w            Wrap AAC data in MP4 container. (default for *.mp4 and *.m4a)

  -s            Optimize MP4 container layout after encoding

  --artist X    Set artist to X

  --writer X    Set writer to X

  --title X     Set title to X

  --genre X     Set genre to X

  --album X     Set album to X

  --compilation Set compilation

  --track X     Set track to X (number/total)

  --disc X      Set disc to X (number/total)

  --year X      Set year to X

  --cover-art X Read cover art from file X

  --comment X   Set comment to X



Documentation:

  --license     Show the FAAC license.

  --help        Show this abbreviated help.

  --long-help   Show complete help.



  More tips can be found in the audiocoding.com Knowledge Base at

  http://www.audiocoding.com/wiki/

I then used this command line to convert the WAV file to a M4A file:

C:\Temp>faac.exe -b 128 -c 44100 -w Bach.wav

Freeware Advanced Audio Coder

FAAC 1.28



Average bitrate: 128 kbps

Quantization quality: 100

Bandwidth: 16000 Hz

Object type: Low Complexity(MPEG-4) + M/S

Container format: MPEG-4 File Format (MP4)

Encoding Bach.wav to Bach.m4a

   frame          | bitrate | elapsed/estim | play/CPU | ETA

  403/403   (100%)|   74.8  |    0.4/0.4    |   29.51x | 0.0

Note that I used the "-w" option so that the AAC data stream was 'wrapped' in a MP4 container.

I then renamed "Bach.m4a" to "Bach.m4r".
(Note the M4R extension is used to identify the file as a ringtone.)

And I then dragged and dropped the "Bach.m4r" file into the iTunes library.
(If iTunes fails to accept the dropped file, it means that file is not in the correct format.)

Then I synced the ringtone to the iPhone.

The following pages provided inspiration for the above:

• Create Ringtones For Your iPhone Using Linux
• (YouTube) How to Put Free Ringtones On Your Iphone 4S - EASY MODE