Get Hot Ringtones On Your Phone

Ringtone History

The first ringtone was invented in 1994. In those days most US cellphones were Motorola "brick" phones or car mounted. They didn't support multiple ringers.

In 1994, Nokia featured "Gran Vals" by Francisco Tarrega on it's wireless phones. The classical melody became so popular that it became a standard ring tone in the Nokia line of cell phones. With the success of "Gran Vals", Nokia began introducing other ringtones by 1997. A major breakthrough occurred in 2002 when Nokia produced the 3510 model that supported 4-polyphonic tones. By the end of the year, this was expanded to support 24-polyphinic tones, although this was eventually reduced to 16. By now people had the chance to customize their cell phone.

Today many phones support monophonic, polyphonic, and mp3 (or real/true) ringtones. Millions of cell phones are sold every year and they only come in a few basic models and colors. The only real way to customize you cell phone is to add a custom ringtone. This helps express your own personality as well as distinguish your phone ringer from others' when in a crowded room.

Types Of Ring Tones

Ringtones are divided into three formats:

Monophonic Ringtones : Some of the first cell phones came equipped with the capability of having a one tone ringer. Monophonic is the simplest of ring tone technology that uses a midi format. This "one note wonder" changed ringtones. Gone were the chirps and chimes; now you could play a song. A monophonic ringtone is single notes playing a song. You can recognize your favorite song but it sounds a little lame. Most monophonic tones are offered on a complimentary basis because of more full bodied tones now available.

Polyphonic Ringtones: Polyphonic ring tones also use midi technology but the tonal quality is richer and has more depth. This is because polyphonic ringtones can play up to 40 notes or more. A quick example is the sound produced when Windows XP starts up. It reproduces the sound of an orchestra playing a note rather than one instrument playing the same note.

Polyphonic with its richer tonal quality sounds better than monophonic but when compared to MP3 quality it sounds pretty weak. Midi format may be adequate for basic ringers and great for greeting cards but if it's real sound that you want for your cell phone, keep reading.

Truetone And Mp3's: The future of sound for ringtones seems to be hifi quality. The real tone or true tone ringtones that can be downloaded onto your cell phone are equivalent to an MP3 player quality and sounds a little like an iPod.

True tone technology will allow the user to hear recorded voices such as Austin Powers announcing "You're phone is ringing, baby, yeah". This recording is so convincing that people will be looking for Mike Myers. Songs like Outkast's "Hey Ya" and the Starsky and Hutch theme song are downloadable as well. With a built in microphone you can record your own or someone else's voice. True tone ringtones will even mimic a real old fashioned telephone ring.