Yesterday I posted a video of a common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) singing a lovely and complex song. Some readers thought it would make a nice ringtone or alarm and, sure enough, reader Cremnomaniac extracted the song as an MP3, tweaked it a bit, and made it available for 24 hours at the link below. His post was at 8:41 pm yesterday (Wednesday), so you have until this evening to download it. Here’s his/her comment:
Here is the MP3 for anyone interested.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6iu2goojtjw7hgo/Luscinia.mp3I will leave it open until this time tomorrow. I’ve edited it slightly to remove some of the larger silences only. It’s 39 seconds and 1.3Mb.
I must say that seeing the modulation and timings of the song in graphic form is incredible. The the patterns and precision are immediately recognizable.
I don’t know how to turn MP3s into ringtones or alarms, but I’m sure we have plenty of tech-savvy readers who can do it.
Do post below if you’re using it.
You can find lots of converters on-line. Most are free. Here, for example is one:
http://download.cnet.com/MP3-to-Ringtone-Gold/3000-18505_4-10441978.html
A google search for “MP3 to rinngtone” yields lots of ’em.
Thanks Cremnomaniac, that will now be a personal ringtone.
I’ll admit to being something of a boring old fogey.
The only phone in my home that rings is Grandma’s old wall-mount rotary dial phone, complete with LAndscape 5-2115 as the phone number in the center of the dial. Still works great as a phone. And, by “Grandma,” I mean my own mother’s mother.
My iPhone is set to ring to “Old Phone,” which is a not bad imitation of Grandma’s phone.
I’ve found that anything else will get my attention, sure, but I’ll have to consciously work out that it’s a phone ringing and that maybe I should answer it.
b&
There are only 3 acceptable ringtones:
1. Proper old phone bell.
2. Nightingale, obviously.
3. Rush: “Spirit Of Radio” intro riff on a loop.
Everything else is HERESY.
Sorry, also the Doctor Who theme. That is my ring tone for my non work phone.
Four! Four acceptable ringtones…
You realize that as soon as you posted these here, they immediately became unacceptable for anybody else. Because the very essence of a personalized ringtone is that nobody else has it.
I have a ring tone created for me by my eldest son. It is a regular phone ring, to make it recognisable, overlaid with other sounds to make it unique. Perfect!
Thank you very much Cremnomaniac and to Jerry for posting it on his site!
The challenge now is for me to remember that I changed my ringtone, otherwise I’ll be thinking that there’s a bird singing nearby!
Or upon hearing a real nightingale, I’ll wake up and reach for my mobile.
It felt like I imagine Mississippi probably feels at night here in Pittsburgh last night. Languid, misty, trying to be a bit cool and almost succeeding. Thru that, two screech owls calling not that far apart but with distinctly different voices in/near my wooded back yard. Were they each trying to attract each other, or were they each trying to summon another one?
Either way, it was way cool! I’ve heard them out there before, very occasionally, but this was the first time I’d heard such clearly distinct voices. Only wish I could have recorded it, and, seeing this post, that would have made a great ringtone, too. The spacing between their calls was about perfect for a ringtone.
I just Googled nightingale ringtone and came up with this among many. And, there’s a screech owl ringtone on YT. What isn’t already out there?
Imagine a ringtone of a cat yowling in anger…eeeeeoooowww, pfttt, pfttt!
If you use iTunes/have an iPhone, this website has great instructions on how to take the mp3 and make it a ringtone:
http://www.simonblog.com/2010/09/06/how-to-create-ringtone-for-iphone-on-itunes-10/
Yikes! On Android, you just drop your MP3s into a folder called ringtones and you’re done. No special tools or 10-step instructions needed.
For Mac users, Garage Band is a great way to create ring tones. Online instructions are easy to find.
I test-drove my edit of the soundtrack (fade-in and fade-out, eq’d to remove some low-frequency noise) this afternoon and it’s sooooo good to wake up to.
If Cremnomaniac’s edit is no longer available, mine will be here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/1294689511/Common%20Nightingale%20edit.mp3
As far as I can tell it’ll be there indefinitely. It’s a 2mb mp3.
…obviously I’m using it as an alarm rather than an actual ringtone…
That’s what I’m setting this too as well, thanks for your version!
Ah you had me at free :). I will try it tonight!
There’s a serious drawback to using birdsong as a ringtone. I tried it by recording a bird that sat and sang just outside my studio window. Sure, you get the coolest ringtone ever but then every time a bird sings nearby you think it’s your damn phone ringing!
Happens with other ones too, I use Cole Porter’s ‘Let’s Misbehave’ by Irving Aaronson and His Commanders which pops up on the soundtrack of the new Great Gatsby – I had a terrible panic that I hadn’t switched the damn thing off . . .
Thanks a bunch Cremnomaniac and Professor Coyne! I don’t have a smart phone and barely use a cell phone, but my iPod provides falling asleep and waking up music, so I dropped it into a file 15 times and now have 10 minutes of birdsong to wake up to!
What a website–just make a wish and it comes true! Now I’ll have to fight the urge to develop superstitious beliefs around Ceiling Cat!
“Here’s his/her comment:”
I assume you are trying to be considerate with that comment, but since I have revealed my identity here before it isn’t necessary. So that’s Mr Cremnomaniac to you. LOL.
to make it a ring tone just sabre the mp3 to the phone. Open ring tones and use the add feature to select it. Well, it works that way on my Android.
Thanks, I’ve downloaded it.
Just pointing out that the file right now has a double extension (.mp3.mpeg) which didn’t help my software recognise the file type.
Deleting the .mpeg from the filename did the trick.