The Formats of Ringtones
In just a shot time span of one decade, ringtones have transformed from the monotonous, boring and unimaginative imitations of music into real music tracks and natural sounds, sometimes rendered with more clarity than many of our stereo output gadgets, depending to the quality of the speakers of the cell phone. This transformation occurred due to the invention and implementation of superior quality formats for editing the mobile music.
The development of cell phone melodies can roughly be put into four different phases.
The initial stage was that of the monophonic tones, which had a very limited scope due to the fact that only a single tone could be played at a given time, but in various pitches. The format for this kind of tones was the Ring Tone Text Transfer Language (RTTTL) and suited hand sets produced only by a handful of cell phone manufacturers, especially Nokia. These text files could be transferred to a hand set in the form of an SMS message. There was also an option for the enthusiast to create his own ringtone by using an editing device found on the hand sets itself. Similar formats like the eMelody, iMelody and MOT were developed at this stage by some rival manufacturers.
The polyphonic ringtones, which came into existence around the year 2001 in Japan, was far superior in all aspects to the monophonic ones, as this type could play different types of notes and sounds, sometimes up to 40, at one time. Initial offerings of polyphonic melodies used the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) format. However, this format could play instrumental music, but not the original voices and tracks one can hear emanating from the multitude of cell phones around him. The MIDI system ruled the roost till the next format, the real tunes, came into existence.
Due to advancement of technology and the human desire to aspire for something higher, cell phone companies came up with such hand sets which had most of the features of a music system incorporated into them. Mobile phones now were no only a device for communication, but a device for entertainment too. The addition of these features enabled the cell phone to accept real music and recordings, without any distortions, and often with superior quality, depending upon the speakers. Here came the third generation of ringtones called true tones or real tones or master tones, which quickly spread like wildfire to all spheres of ringtone industry. As opposed to the earlier formats like monophonic and polyphonic tones, this format could play any high-fidelity recordings of any music or sound, to any lengths. The new format, which came into being in 2004, was gladly accepted by the masses and there came into existence a massive industry of creating and selling ringtones. The industry, mediocre till now, grew to unimaginable lengths.
A recent development is the emergence of a fourth format, where formats like MP3, AAC, or WMA can be used. The latest high end offerings from almost all the leading cell phones can play original music from these formats. The best part of this transformation is that enthusiasts can create their own ringtones, especially in the MP3 format, by using audio editing software and then transferring them to the hand set using any transfer devices like the data cable.
From the days when were just sounds produced by musical instruments, ringtones have travelled a long distance where they have become part of the mainstream music industry.
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