A practical pass through the editor
- Move past the introduction. The editor starts with the first 30 seconds selected. That matches the iPhone limit below, but it is only a working range. Drag across the waveform or enter exact times to choose the part that reaches its recognizable sound quickly.
- Set both edges by ear. Put the left handle where the sound begins and the right handle before the unused tail. PrivateMP3 does not detect silence automatically, so a quiet musical passage will not be mistaken for an empty one.
- Preview the whole selection. The highlighted range is the output. Listen from its first attack through its last sound and leave a little breathing room when an immediate start feels abrupt.
- Compare the fade. It is enabled initially. Switch it off only after listening to both boundaries.
A shorter clip gets to the useful sound sooner during an incoming call and makes a smaller file. On iPhone the limit is 30 seconds; Google's Android instructions give none. A 30-second clip therefore works on both, and a shorter one rings sooner with the part you chose.
The fade is deliberately short
Cutting while the waveform is away from zero can create a discontinuity heard as a click. The fade control applies a 30 millisecond gain ramp to each end of the final clip. It softens that boundary; it is not a musical fade-in or a long fade-out. A fade changes samples and therefore requires re-encoding. Cutting on clean silence may sound better with it disabled, which is why previewing both ends matters.
Both format choices are new encodes
PrivateMP3 writes MP3 or M4A ringtone clips with a 192 kbps target. There is no bitrate control. At a fixed target, file size mainly follows clip duration. MP3 is useful when the phone's sound picker or transfer instructions ask for MP3. M4A is useful when the next installation application accepts AAC.
Neither output is a packet copy here. The selected subsection changes the timeline, and the default fade changes sample values. Turning the fade off still leaves a trimmed selection that must be encoded again.
Measured: a 30-second clip with and without the fade
Tested on 10 October 2026 in Chrome 154 on Windows 11. The source was a ten-minute MOV with a continuous 220 Hz tone and quiet pink noise, so any cut lands mid-waveform, the case where a click is likely. The selection was 0:10 to 0:40. Each saved file was decoded to PCM and its level measured in 5 ms windows.
| Output | Saved size | Length | Level, first 5 / 10 / 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 ms |
|---|---|---|---|
| M4A, fade on (default) | 726,942 bytes | 30.016 s | -47.5, -43.8, -40.5, -34.9, -32.6, -30.6 dB |
| M4A, fade off | 727,126 bytes | 30.016 s | silent, -60.3, -31.1, -29.9, -30.2, -29.8 dB |
| MP3, fade on | 720,744 bytes | 30.024 s | silent, silent, -109.3, -95.2, -62.0, -46.6 dB; the ramp starts after 22 ms of encoder delay and reaches -36.2 dB by 40 ms |
The steady level of the clip was -30.4 dB. With the fade, the start climbs to it over about 30 ms and the end falls away the same way. Without it, the sound goes from nothing to full level within 5 ms, which is the step heard as a click. Both encoders add a little silence: about 9 ms at the start of the M4A and about 22 ms at the start of the MP3, which is the MP3 encoder's delay. Neither is audible on a ringtone, but it is why the files run slightly over 30 seconds. At 192 kbps a 30-second clip is about 0.72 MB in either format.
Save here, install on the phone
The page creates an audio clip; it does not install a ringtone or produce a device-specific ringtone package. These are the documented routes for the saved file.
- iPhone. Save the clip to Files. In GarageBand, open Files, browse items from the Files app, touch and hold the clip and drag it all the way to the left into the Tracks view. Then tap Share, Ringtone, give it a name and tap Export. Apple states ringtones can be up to 30 seconds long and offers to shorten a longer one. (Apple: create a custom ringtone on your iPhone)
- Android with Files by Google. Open Files by Google, go to Audio under Categories, play the clip, tap More, then Set as ringtone, and allow the app to modify system settings when asked. Google's page gives no format or length limit. (Files by Google Help: set an audio file as your ringtone)
- Pixel over USB. Connect the phone to a computer, copy the MP3 into the Ringtones folder, disconnect, then choose it in Settings, Sound & vibration, Ringtone. Google's instructions name MP3 for this route. (Pixel Phone Help: sound settings)
Other Android makers use their own menus. If a sound picker does not list the clip, try the MP3 version.