Digital not adding up or too many voices confusing you? Read on and find out about creating ringtones.
From the early monophonic tone to the modern MP3 digital
Ringtones - what are they? Well, the answer depends upon the time period you are looking at. The mobile phone has changed beyond recognition over the last two decades and ringtones, as a major feature of the cell phone, have moved with it. The best way of answering is to look at how they have changed too.
On the other pages on this site, we look at the way ringtones are seen as a status symbol, how they are used to reflect the personality and individuality of the user and how the types of sound which go to make up ringtones have moved from a simple 'ringing' to complex tunes and even comedy and voices.
Your mobile is 'you' and your image to your friends and anyone who sees you using it. But this is a new development - go back only a few years and there were few or even no options for customizing a cell phone.
There are essentially three different types of sound that cell phones can play and these are (in order of complexity):
Monophonic
Phonos means 'voice' and mono means 'one' therefore a monophonic phone can only play ringtones which are made up of a single voice (for voice, read instrument, synthesizer or sound source). For example, if this were a pop group, you could have a keyboard player (playing note-by-note but not chords as these would require multiple voices) but no singer or guitarist.
Polyphonic
Poly means 'many' (voices in this case) but in practice this is usually up to about 40 (the more the better). To continue the example of the pop group, this would take in the full group including the chords of the guitarist and keyboard player. If you wanted to bring in a full orchestra then this would exceed the phone's capacity.
Real Music - MP3, WAV, WMA
MP3 is the most popular format for real music (because of the digital compression making for smaller files). The sounds produced by such equipment is extremely realistic and akin to a CD playing. No doubt the future will show that the quality can be improved upon but, at present, this standard is as good as it gets.
Most modern phones are MP3-based and there are relatively few monophonic or even polyphonic cell phones still being sold as the demand for them has dropped away as everyone wants MP3 ringtones nowadays.
There really is no limit to what you can get your cell phone to play as its ringtones.
|