Polyphonic Ring Tones- Old-fashioned?
By Philip Nicosia, Sat Dec 10th

In the beginning was the ring (really more of an electronictrill or beep) -- dull, yet serviceable, using only one tonetrack; and with it came the single-line melody -- not much of achoice.

Then Nokia invented text messaging, and Paanen, a Finnishprogrammer, realised that you use the same technology to easilytransmit songs to mobile phone handsets. This led to thedevelopment of Harmonium, the first complex polyphonic soundcreator. Instead of being locked into single tones, userssuddenly could have rings with harmony and texture.

Still, someone had to programme the sounds; you couldn't justconvert your favourite songs into Harmonium polyphonic sounds.Digital content providers picked up Harmonium quickly and usedit to create polyphonic ringtones, selling them to both phoneusers and phone providers. While polyphonic tones were betterthan monotones, they still sounded more like an old video gamethan the music they were patterned after.

MP3 Ringtones: The New Wave

Today, ringtone providers are switching to MP3 ringtones withrealistic, near-CD-quality sound. Also called master tones ortrue tones, these are usually bits of a real song, using yourfavourite music to alert you to a call. Voice ringtones, soundeffects, and instrumental or lyrical music are all available asMP3 ringtones today.

MP3 ringtones today account for two thirds of new mobileringtones. The sound is a snippet of your favourite music withlyrics and the whole band playing -- much nicer than theold-fashioned ring or dull monotone melody. Most mobile phonemanufacturers today include this type of ringtone on theirnewest handsets. Even better, you can program today's phones toplay different tones for different reasons.

If

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you have more than one life, as most people do, you can alsohave multiple ringtones. The songs you want played when you'reout at a pub are probably different from the ones you wantsounding at work and with most phones today it's not hard toswitch. You can also assign different ringtones to differentpeople; your mother might have a radically different tone fromyour boyfriend.

Most cell phones come with some ringtones pre-installed, but youcan find the ones you really like out on the wireless web. Thereare several methods for downloading ringtones. You can subscribeto a service that will send them to your phone weekly for a fee.Or you can download new ringtones from your favourite band'swebsite. If you prefer to look at a wider variety of ringtones,you can download them directly to your phone from severalsources, using either a scrollable menu or choosing a numericalcode linked to the ringtone you want. Not all rings arecompatible with all phones, so do try to sample them first.

If your ringtone sounds awful, it may not be the ringtone; itmay be the phone. Older phones aren't perfectly compatible withthe newer ringtones, though they'll probably play them. Imaginethe difference between stereo systems in the 1950s and today;that's about the difference you're looking at between athree-year-old phone and a brand new one, in terms of soundoutput. Your mobile phone provider should be able to tell youwhat your phone can handle.

About the author:Philip Nicosia is the webmaster of Ringtones.lt, a sitespecialising in the different genres of ringtones, including polyphonic ringtones, true tones andmp3ringtones.

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