Convert Audio Clip to Ringtone - Mac Automation

Creating your own ringtones for your iPhone is a fairly simple process:

Find your audio source
Create a clip of that audio (I prefer Audacity)
Convert that audio to and AAC m4a file
Rename the file with an m4r extension
Use iTunes to add the m4r file to your iPhone

This tutorial will only cover steps 3 and 4 to make it easier for you.

It will require having FFmpeg installed on your machine. You can easily install it with Homebrew:

brew install ffmpeg

You can now use FFmpeg to convert an mp3 file to m4a with the following command:

ffmpeg -i clip.mp3 -c:a aac -b:a 192k clip.m4a

Good luck remembering that though. You could add a nice function to your .zshrc or .bashrc file:

ringtone() {
    ffmpeg -i "$1" -c:a aac -b:a 192k temp_ringtone.m4a
    mv temp_ringtone.m4a "${1%.mp3}.m4r"
}

Now you could simply run the following:

ringtone clip.mp3

This would generate a file name clip.m4r

But, let's go one step further. Let's add an Automator service that will allow you to right-click on an audio file and give you an option to convert it to a ringtone.

Step 1: Open Automator

Step 2: Select File > New and then select "Quick Action"

Step 3: Set the following options:

Workflow receives current: audio files
in: Finder.app
Image: Audio

Step 4: Drag the Run Shell Script action into your workflow

Step 5: Set the Shell and Input parameters

Shell: either /bin/bash or /bin/zsh
Pass input: as arguments

Step 6: Add the following script:

/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg -i "$1" -c:a aac -b:a 192k temp_ringtone.m4a
mv temp_ringtone.m4a "${1%.mp3}.m4r"

Step 7: Save the Automation

Press ⌘S to save. Name it something like "Create Ringtone"

Step 8: Test it out!

If you just want the workflow, you can download it here. Create-Ringtone.workflow Download