The Definition of a Good Ringtone
Sunday, May 29, 2011 at 14:40
It’s happened many times: I sit in a train, as all of a sudden a loud noise wakes up all the passengers. It’s a phone, as loud as can be. Thin, harsh music. Many faces turn to the source of the sound, watching it’s owner dig in his/her pocket to pick it up as soon as he/she can.
But it’s already too late. I don’t know the person, but now I know his/her love for German schlagers (and probably lots of beer and sausages, right?). Apart from the fact the sound annoys other people, what does it say about a person? What kind of prejudice does he/she leave?
This is a random example of a situation in which unwanted sound disturbs our living space, and there are many more. I cannot think of any good reason to use music as a ringtone anyway. It’s like wearing a button showing a tiny fragment of a painting by your favorite artist.
The music I like might not be the music you prefer (and I like to listen to a song from beginning to end, preferably on a quality sound system or headphones), and the sound of your three-year-old yelling might make you feel all warm inside, do you think it has the same effect on your colleagues? That being said, let’s look at the positive side of things. Is there such a thing as a good ringtone?
Properties of a good ringtone
-
Mood-less-ness. A ringtone should not communicate a specific mood. You never know who’s on the other side of the line, and you never know what message is waiting for you.
-
Personal. The iPhone is a wonderful device, but since they are so popular, they are everywhere. The phone rings. Is it yours or your neighbor’s? Using a personal ringtone you always know when to react.
-
Unobtrusiveness. I know some people always use the vibration mode of their phone, but I also know they don’t pick it up half of the time because they don’t feel it, and obviously don’t hear it. Using a gentle, unobtrusive ringtone will not annoy your friend or colleagues, and solves this problem.
-
Clarity. That being said you don’t want it to be too soft and gentle as you won’t hear it anymore. The frequency has to be right, as the human ear doesn’t respond to low sounds as well as to higher pitched sounds. Next to that, a sound that has the right frequency can be set to a lower level as our ears are more sensitive to it.
It’s not hard to design a ringtone that has all those properties. Yet the stock iPhone ringtones tend to be completely unusable ‘funny’ ringtones like ‘Motorcycle’, ‘Old Car Horn’ or ‘Pinball’. As a sound designer, knowing Apples high standards for product design, I really have no clue why they don’t seem to pay any attention to these sounds and their functionality.
That’s why I created Cleartones, a set of fifty ringtones that will make our world sound a bit better and your friend and colleagues less annoyed. They all comply with the properties mentioned above. The set can be bought from the Cleartones website, but you can also try some of the ringtones before buying them by ‘paying’ with a tweet or a Facebook comment.
Joachim Baan of Anothersomething was kind enough to provide me with photo material that illustrates the way a ringtone should gently add a functional sound to the soundcape of our lives: A ripple in the sand of a curvy desert or sparks of sunlight reflecting in the water.
Reader Comments (8)
Awesome idea Hugo! Hope it does well :-)
Such an interesting project Hugo..
Funny how the monophonic nature of some of these takes us back full circle to the very first ringtones.. Classic example of doing something just because you can; a phone CAN play any audio hence you have low quality Lady Gaga blaring each time you get a call. Unfortunately I think the pyschology behind 'recognisable' ringtones may in many cases be too deep-rooted to affect - I'd liken it to the challenge of persuading people they don't need to wear fashion labels.
Once overheard someone on a train declaring that anyone choosing the original Nokia tune as their ringtone was, essentially, a terrible excuse for a human being.. no originality, no sense of what's cool and so on. So that would include me then.. But the moodless consistency of the Nokia tone is exactly the reason I wanted to use it.
Perhaps in future someone will invent a way to use that targeted ultrasound for phones – then theoretically everyone can have the same tone. Practical, but of course pretty uninspired!
As John Maeda says “the simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction”, and it's brilliant that you're making people aware of how they can do their bit for a less cluttered soundscape.
@Andrew: Thanks! I am happy to say, it does.
@Sam: Thank you for your thoughtful words. You are right, some of them are just like the ones in the first 'digital' phones we had. They were simple and effective, simply because the hardware didn't support any polyphony. Now we don't have a choice anymore if we stick with the standard set we get with our phone.
I personally recognize my simple ringtone (I am currently using 'Persistent' from the Cleartones set), at the first beep, and I always know it's mine.
I have a dinky phone but it has this option called "meeting" and it presents this single sort of gentle "ping" just once. It's the perfect pitch of something not in nature but soft that it's not digital or irritating. And I must admit walkin in the city I do miss a call or 2 but sitting in a library or meeting... it's that tone that as quiet at it seems, my ear hears it with precision. And it's so welcoming. Some people even say? "what was that?" It is so soft and kind. This is why I won't get a new phone. I just love this one little "ping" that rings only once, for text or call. These tones you present are just like this. I thought I was alone. Now I see: there is a peaceful need for clear tones.
@Linda: I used to get the same reactions to the standard iPhone message tone. But now everyone has an iPhone and you hear the same tones all the time. And whil this message tone was gentle and peaceful, the ringtones really are loud and crappy. I think you described the need for a product like Cleartones quite well :-) So now maybe you can get an iPhone too?
I think part of the reason many people choose unsuitable ringtones is that they start with the sound they like, and not with the function they're trying to perform. In other words, they think, "Wow – I love this song! What can I do with it? I know – I'll use it as my ringtone!" They don't actually ask themselves, "I need a ringtone – What would be a good one to use?"
How great that you put thought and engineering into the question, to create ringtones that are actually *designed* to perform their job!
Thank you Sarinne! That might indeed be the case for a lot of people who are unaware of the noise pollution they emit.
It’s nice to find a fellow ringtone maker! It’s refreshing to find someone who cares about ringtones like I do. I do strive for much of the same things you do, but decided to go in a different direction. At Astral Fish I try to make "tiny songs for your phone." I create ringtones on my iPad and iPhone and combine it with artwork drawn on my iPad for each ringtone and try to keep them loose and sketchy. In that sense I don’t follow your idea of mood-less-ness.
I also make notification tones and in some I do attempt a mood-less-ness feeling but only if appropriate the intent of the ringtone. Some ringtones I make are good as a text message alert, others are good at being an alarm clock in the morning. Those two purposes have clear design differences that need to be met for each to succeed.
That said, what I’ve heard of the two Cleartone sets is terrific. I think you have accomplished exactly what you set out to do and the clarity is superb. Hopefully it will get more people to pay attention to what sounds they contribute to the environment. Cheers!