So - You’re ready to put new ringtones on your phone. Unfortunately, Googling leads you to believe that the only way to do so involves crazy shareware apps that end up costing as much as a bagful of premade ringtones.

Don’t worry, We’ve got you covered. We’ve written this guide to demonstrate how to take an MP3 and convert it into a ringtone using nothing but free software. (Oddly enough, it’s almost easier than doing it with the applications built for this purpose.)

A PC will be used for the purposes of this guide, but both applications are available for OS X. Everything within the guide should translate over to OS X fairly easily.

Note: For the time being, MP3s can be used directly as ringtones with a bit of renaming. If Helio ever decides to change that, MMFs should still work just fine. See the bottom of this guide for more info)

Requirements:
- Audacity (Available Here)
- Yamaha’s Standalone Converter (Windows Download / OS X Download)

The Process:
1. Download and Install Audacity, and unzip the converter to a convenient location.

2. Open Audacity

3. In Audacity, Go to File->Open


4. Open the MP3 you wish to create an MMF ringtone out of. It should display the MP3s wave form as seen here.

5. Highlight the section of the song you wish to make into a ringtone by dragging over it with your mouse.

6. Go back up to File, but this time choose “Extract Selection As WAV” (If you’re going to try to use an MP3 as a ringtone instead, choose “Extract Selection As MP3″ and skip the next 4 steps.)

7. Save the .WAV file in the same folder that you extracted the converter to.

8. Open the converter. Simply drag your newly made .WAV on top of the converter. The default options should work perfectly for the Ocean. Title it whatever you want the Ringtone to be called.

9. Hit ok.

10. The converter will create a new .mmf in the same directory you’re storing it in.

How to use MP3s directly instead: Follow steps 1-6 above to create a ringtone you like. Rename the exported MP3 from “Songname.mp3” to “Songname.mmf“.

If you need help getting your new mmf (or MP3) onto your ocean, follow this guide.