It couldn’t be much easier than this to create customized ringtones for your Nokia S60 5th Edition or S60 3rd Edition device. Flying Ringtone Maker by Ukraine-based FlyingBird Software lets you pull up any MP3 format audio file, trim it to taste, and assign it as the ringtone for anyone that you select from your contact list.

OK, there is one limitation, which is that Flying Ringtone Maker will only work with MP3 files. So, if you are extracting music or other audio from a different type of file source, you will have to convert it to MP3 before making it into a ringtone with this app. Fortunately, there are a many file conversion apps out there to convert other formats to MP3 if necessary, and many of them are free. Just type “MP3 file conversion” into your search engine and see. In addition, a huge body of downloaded music or music ripped from CDs is already in MP3 format.

With that in mind, I checked out Ringtone Maker on my Nokia N97. It started by asking me where my MP3 files are stored and where I wanted to store the created ringtones. The default is the E:\Music folder, which is the mass storage unit on my Nokia N97, and in fact the place where I keep my MP3 files.

The first step is stating where the MP3 files and ringtones are, and the time increments of the rough cut and exact cuts.

In this settings step, my first instinct was to just accept the default time steps for the rough cut and exact cut for timeline trimming of the audio file. However, since I knew that I just wanted the lead-in hook intro to the song and not the initial words that immediately followed, I used 0.3 seconds  as the exact cut step.

I then clicked Done and it immediately took me to the listing of available MP3 files in my specified folder. Using the USB cable interface between the Nokia N97 and my PC, I had previously transferred some MP3 files onto my Nokia device, including a new Reggae song called ‘Criminal Planet’ that I particularly like. Well, OK, I particularly like it because I wrote it. My orchestration collaborator set it to music, and the ringtone is to become his identifying tone on my device.

Next step, select the audio file.

As soon as the file is selected, the app goes to the rough cut screen and immediately starts playing the audio file.

The rough cut screen, where I cut down the full 4 min 35 sec song to just the 17 second intro.

Personally, I was a little surprised that it started playing the music immediately, but since there was a 2 second silent lead in to the song, I had plenty of time to click on Start.

That brought me to the screen below, where I could either save the ringtone or refine it further with an exact cut. I opted for the exact cut, as I wanted to clearly separate the musical intro from the words that started immediately thereafter.

One can accept the rough cut or go in for an exact edit.

Clicking on Exact edit brought up the screen below, which had finer resolution of setting the time trims for start and finish. One the one hand, I didn’t want a ringtone that starts with 2 seconds of silence, and on the back end, I wanted only the musical lead-in. If you want to hear the final ringtone, it can be found on YouTube.

In the Exact edit window, I did the final trimming.

When I clicked on Confirm to finish the trim, it brought me back to Options screen, where I played the ringtone again to be sure, then saved it with the name Reggae CP1, and then clicked on Assign as ringtone.

That brought up my contact list. I scrolled down to find the name of my musical collaborator, clicked OK, and the ringtone was assigned to him.

Last step, assign the ringtone to someone in your contact list.

Flying Ringtone Maker is available for $6.99 (USD) in Ovi Store.

For more information about using this application, and for the latest list of compatible devices, please visit the publisher website.