The Null Device

A German "electropunk"/"disco-pop" band best known for wearing giant panda heads are releasing their new album exclusively in mobile phone ringtone format. A copy of Super Smart's "Panda Babies" will set you back €1.99.

¶ mobile phones music ringtones the recording industry 0

Some hints for those wishing to compose polyphonic ringtones that work with Nokia phones:

• Get this PDF file; it describes, among other things, which instrument sounds are available and which ones are mapped to other things. So if your harpsichord ends up sounding like a grand piano, you'll know why.
• A General MIDI sound module doesn't sound like a Nokia phone, though it's close enough for testing (especially if you keep in mind what's mapped to what). The godawful Universal Sound Module softsynth that comes with Cubase is useful enough for this task.
• If your tone won't play on your phone, it's probably too large; try cutting it down a bit. I think the limit (for the Nokia 3200, at least) is somewhere betwen 8 and 15K.
• Remember: it's a ringtone. Get rid of any intros, elaborate filigrees and buildups and get to the meat of it. It's probably going to play only for a few seconds (unless you're the kind of wanker who lets their phone ring out so that everybody on the train can hear how k3wl your tone is, of course, in which case you should probably be garrotted).

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Everybody's trash to somebody, baby: A psychologist has claimed that your mobile phone ringtone says a lot more about you than you may like. For example, young schoolgirls choose Top 10 pop songs to fit in; if young, competitive men, however, choose pop songs, they do so to make themselves look "safe" and camouflage their manipulative, sexually predatory natures. Meanwhile, themes from action movies are frequently chosen by young professionals who want to be seen as dynamic problem-solvers; however, those who have the time to set up their phones like that typically have dull lives that fail to live up to this image:

"They don't have huge excitement in their lives but like to think that they do. I doubt you'd find a firefighter or ambulance driver with a ring tone like that."

(via Techdirt)

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