Cut a portion from the mp3

For this step you will need 'Audacity'. It's a program that allows you to cut a portion of an mp3 and to save that as a separate file. Audacity is entirely free, but makes use of an extra piece of software to save the cut portion as an mp3, namely 'Lame'.

So you need to download both Audacity, Lame and WinZip. Audacity is a simple installation, but Lame requires a little more manoeuvring to get going. Once it's setup though, you'll never have to worry about it again and will only use Audacity from there.

Lame is a zipped file, so you'll need WinZip to extract the needed files from it. Don't worry, I'll take you step by step through it:

1. Download and install Audacity.
2. Download and install WinZip.
3. Download Lame.
4. Now, to extract the files from "lame-3.96.1.zip" (the file you downloaded for Lame) is fairly simple. First, copy the file "lame-3.96.1.zip" to C:/Program Files/Audacity/ on your hard drive, where "C" is your local hard drive.
5. Right-click on the file, select "WinZip", and then click on the option that says "Extract to folder C:\Program Files\Audacity\lame-3.96.1".
6. A WinZip screen will now appear that gives you the option to either buy the software (a good idea, because this is a nice application to have) or to use the evaluation version. Click on the button that says "Use Evaluation Version".
7. All the files will be now extracted to a folder named "lame-3.96.1" in your Audacity folder. You can now delete the file "lame-3.96.1.zip" if you wish, as you will no longer need it.

Now we go to Audacity:

1. Open Audacity.
2. Click on "File" and then on "Open".
3. Browse to where you saved your mp3-file, select it, and click on "Open".
4. A screen briefly appears that says "Importing filename-of-your-song.mp3".
5. Something that looks like a series of spikes now appears in Audacity. This is the song laid out from left to right in a series of portions. Each spike or dip resembles either a soft or a loud part of the song. The song begins on the left and ends on the right. Above the song the time is also displayed on a ruler, i.e. at the left you have 0 seconds of the song, in the middle you would have say 1:30 of the song, and on the right you'll have the end of the song (e.g. 3:00).
6. To make this clearer, click on the play button. A bar moves from left to right as the song plays. Now the thing to remember here is that you can extract any portion of this song, by stopping the bar at any place and highlighting a part of the song.
7. Let's say the part you wish to extract as your ringtone lies between 15 seconds and 30 seconds. To highlight this part, you need to first "bookmark" where the portion starts.
8. So click on the button in the top left that looks like a giant "I" — it should be the default selected cursor anyway.
9. Now click with this icon amid all the spikes under 15 seconds. A line now appears. (To zoom in on the spikes to work more closely, click on the icon that looks like a magnifying glass and click in the area you would like enlarged. If you've zoomed in too far, merely right-click with your mouse in the area to zoom out.)
10. When you now click on the play button the song will begin to play from where the line is. This way you can determine whether the portion will start playing at the right spot. If it doesn't, click with the "I" icon selected until you have the right spot.
11. When you've got the correct starting spot, move your mouse over the line. It now changes into a hand cursor with the finger pointing left. Click and hold the mouse button and then drag your mouse to the right. A portion of the song now gets highlighted as you drag your mouse. The highlighted piece is the part that will get extracted and saved as a new file. Clicking on play will play only the highlighted part, i.e. your portion.
12. If the highlighted part doesn't play the full portion that you would like to extract, move your mouse over the right-hand side of the highlighted part. It again changes to a hand, with the finger now pointing to the right. Click and drag the mouse now and you can extend or narrow the highlighted part. Click on play to determine whether you've got the right portion now.
13. Once you're happy, you can now save this highlighted bit as a new mp3.
14. With the portion you wish to extract being highlighted, click on "File" and then click on the option that says "Export selection as MP3". Make sure you choose the option that includes the "selection" bit, otherwise you're going to export the entire song.
15. A screen now appears that asks you where you want to save the file. Select a place, give the file a name (I suggest a different name than the original to avoid confusion) and click on "Save".
16. This is where Lame now comes in... When trying to export an mp3 for the first time in Audacity, a screen will pop up saying you need Lame to encode an mp3 and specifically a file named "lame_enc.dll". It also asks you to "independently" download this file and then asks you whether you want to locate the file "lame_enc.dll".
17. Since you've already downloaded Lame and extracted the files (including the one Audacity is looking for), click on "Yes".
18. Now browse to C:/Program Files/Audacity/lame-3.96.1 and highlight the file "lame_enc.dll". Then click on "Open".
19. Audacity will now save the file as an mp3 to your hard drive. The next time you run Audacity and want to export a selection of a song, you won't be asked to go through the whole "lame" experience again.
20. Close Audacity.

Now you have to transfer the mp3 to your phone... Page: 3 of 4 - back | next