How to Make Ringtones Louder
Not all ringtones are created equal. Whether you prefer to use basic sounds, quotes from movies, parts of your favorite songs, or some other sound for your ringtone, ringtones vary in their sound quality and auditory properties.
A common problem for ringtones is when they're too quiet to be useful. This ringtone volume guide aims to help you get louder ringtones for your cell phone, as well as advice on how to optimize your phone's volume.
Before getting into the rest of the guide, make sure you know how to control the basic system volume on your phone. Your problem might not be that your ringtone is too quiet, but that your phone as a whole is too quiet.
You phone has either a small wheel along the edge to control the volume, or a pair of buttons used to increase or decrease your volume. A small graphic on your phone screen should indicate that your system volume is being modified, or a short beep should accompany the change in volume at the adjusted volume.
If your phone features neither of these, then check inside your system settings area on your phone to determine whether you have a software-based volume control, rather than a hardware-based volume control, like the wheel or knob. Once you have increased the volume of your phone's speakers, call your phone or play your ringtone, to check to see if your new volume is sufficient for your needs.
If not, we continue with our ringtone sound guide.
I. Basic Steps
There are a few steps that you can use to get louder ringtones. The list below elaborates in greater detail.
- Download the ringtone from a different source
- Convert the ringtone to a different audio format
- Modify the ringtone with audio manipulation software
Each of these are essentially different methods for getting louder ringtones. While they can be used in conjunction with each other, they are best viewed as independent means of accomplishing the same end.
II. Downloading from alternative sources
Even if you think you are getting the same ringtone, it is likely that a ringtone downloaded from one supplier differs from another. This may be something immediately visible to you, such as a note that it is encoded at a lower frequency, in a different format, or at a different sound quality from your current one.
Sometimes, though, this isn't necessarily visible to you. Downloading a ringtone a second time, even from the same source, may result in getting a different version of the same sound. Compare the difference in volumes by playing them back to back, to assess whether the newer version is superior or inferior to the previous.
If you downloaded the ringtone from your provider company or a third party, it might be worthwhile to create the ringtone yourself. This is only an alternative, if you are using sound from a movie, TV show, song, or other existing media.
Use your favorite search engine to find the software to extract the audio from your chosen media, and clip your preferred segment for use as a ringtone. Transfer it to your phone and play it back to discern whether the volume is sufficient. If neither of these paths is sufficient, you can try another format.
III. Converting the ringtone to an alternative format
This path is only an option if your phone supports multiple audio formats. Smartphones usually support mp3, wav, and aac formats. If your phone does support multiple audio formats for ringtones, you can use free software to convert it between formats, to assess whether each format is preferable. Use your favorite search engine to find either generic audio tools or a specific application to convert your ringtone automatically between formats.
Generic manipulation software requires more steps to modify your ringtone format, but gives you greater flexibility, in modification.
Once you have converted your ringtone between multiple formats, load each of them onto the phone and play them back in sequence, either by playing them directly or by selecting them and calling your phone. This lets you assess the volume and whether the new format plays differently on your phone. If this route is unsuccessful for getting you louder ringtones, you have other options.
IV. Modifying the ringtone with audio manipulation software
This option is the most direct means of making a ringtone louder, but it does require you to copy the ringtone to a PC, then move the file back after you have made your manipulations.
First, copy the ringtone to your PC. Next, use your favorite search engine to locate and download the proper audio manipulation software, so you can modify the sound file. You have two options: use paid software to do this, or freeware tools like Audacity. These tools can manipulate the audio file as a waveform, and can make more powerful changes, such as changing the tempo, pitch, or other factors of the sound.
For purposes of changing volume, you don't need features this sophisticated, but you may wish to manipulate them in such a fashion.
To make a ringtone louder in Audacity, select the entire waveform and use the 'Amplify' tool from the Effect menu. Other software may have a different name for this same tool, but all audio manipulation programs should have a similar feature. The volume of your ringtone can be displayed in decibels, abbreviated as 'db', and you can change this value to whatever you deem suitable.
How Loud is Too Loud?
Keep in mind that your phone's speaker is only able to produce sound at a given volume, dependent upon the power of its construction. Also bear in mind that loud sounds can damage your hearing, so don't make the ringtone too loud.
Playing music too loud on the new generation earbuds are worse than the old ear phones of the previous generation, because of the more concentrated sound output. Therefore, it's better to turn up the individual ringtone, as we're describing, than it is to turn your entire cellphone up and get used to a higher volume.
According to one study, playing an iPod type sound at 70% level can hurt your ears, if you listen to it at 4 & 1/2 hours a days. Playing the same sound at 80% of maximum level hurts your ears after 90 minutes, while playing at 95% of volume hurts your ears after only 5 minutes.
Playing any sounds loud for any length of time is going to result in hearing loss, so keep that in mind when setting the volume of our iPods and cellphones. Luckily, that's not going to come into play too often with ringtones.
Turning Up Your Ringtones
Once you have amplified your ringtone, save the modified file and copy it back to your phone. Set it as your ringtone, and experiment with the volume to see if the ringtone is suitable. If not, amplify the soundbite again using your software, copy it back, and try it out again. Repeat this process until your ringtone is sufficiently loud.