Posted on by Jake

Create Your Own Sprint Ringtones

For the past couple of weeks now I’ve been looking off and on about how to make my own ringtones for my Sprint PCS phone. I’ve managed to find some resources that said my Sanyo PM-8200 phone will support polyphonic ringtones. These are essentially just MIDI files and thus can’t do anything more than notation. Nice, but they can hardly compare with the ringtones that are available for $2.50 apiece from Sprint’s site that expire in 90 days. I wanted something of that quality, but without the price or the expiration. So I kept looking. What I discovered was that those fancy rigntones were in a QCP file format. I also discovered a simple command line application, PureVoice that can convert a WAV file into QCP format. Now the only thing I had left to discover was how to get that QCP file to my phone. In looking for that, I discovered a Free Mobile Phone Uploader site that will either send a text message with a link to download your file or give you a Jump Code to allow you to download it.

So now I can have any sound I want in the entire world as a ringtone. Using a little creativity, that can include clips from songs that I downloaded from iTunes for $.99. The basic steps to do that are:

  1. Purchase the song from iTunes.
  2. Convert that file to MP3 format. You can either burn it to a CD then rip it, or use JHymn.
  3. Convert the file to WAV, shorten it to 30 seconds or less. I used Audacity for that task.
  4. Reduce the sound quality to be PCM, mono, 8 kHz, 16-bit. I was unable to figure out how to do that in Audacity, so I simply used the sound recorder app that comes with Windows.
  5. Use PureVoice Converter to convert the WAV file to a QCP file (drag the WAV file onto pvconv.exe).
  6. Upload the QCP file to the Mobile Phone Uploader.
  7. Download it from that site to your phone and assign it like you would any other ringtone.

Update 25-May-2005: Newer phones (like the Sanyo’s that start with “MM”) can use a different, and better sounding, format.
Update 8-Feb-2006: Thanks to Tony, we now know how to make ringtones for free! (Hint: Use walmart.com as step 1).

177 Replies to “Create Your Own Sprint Ringtones”

  2. well i tried cutting my mp3 clips down to about 30 seconds and then do the upload thing jake told us to do and i got myself a clear quality ringer. i have an upstage which supports mp3.

  5. WOW I can’t believe this really worked. Awesome job on putting this whole step-by-step list together. Like a guy posted above, my sound quality is a little scratchy too, but I’m playing with fixes for that. Very good job !!!

  8. Is there a way to receive the actual ringtone via sms? I do not have internet access on my phone, but can receive sms messages. alternatively, my phone LG FUSIC has an SD card. Can I load the QCP file on there and assign the ringtone right from the SD card?

    THanks!

  10. Do you have to make an internet connection to retrieve the file once it is sent to you in a text, through the uploader? I don’t pay for internet use on my phone, so im trying to figure out a way to play my own ringtone without connecting to the internet. Thanks for your help with this.

    Samsung Upstage
    Sprint

  11. i have the same problem as kev. i have an upstage but no internet, and tried the same thing as him. but i got a bunch of files in my phone. is there any way i could get them to play as a ring tone then. or how to put them in “my contents” folder. thanks for the help

  12. Unclaimedlemon, let me know i you do figure it out for the upstage…as well to anyone else who my know. Also…you since you have the same phone I have another question for you. You know the main display where it shows “sync music, music library, and buy music” do you know if those icons can be removed off the main screen? Those are the only problems I have with this phone…hopefully there is a way around them both. Thanks for the help. Good luck to all.

  13. Unclaimedlemon, let me know if you do ever figure out the ringtones for the upstage…as well to anyone else who my know. Also…since you have the same phone I have another question for you. You know the main display where it shows “sync music, music library, and buy music” do you know if those icons can be removed off the main screen? Those are the only problems I have with this phone…hopefully there is a way around them both. Thanks for the help. Good luck to all.

  15. Jacob,

    I used audacity and pvcconverter.
    I then put my scandisk for my phone into my computer and just copy and pasted the new .qcp file to it because I do not have internet access on my phone.
    the song plays but it is low quality and I cannot apply it as a ringtone????

    please help

  16. I used audacity and pvcconverter.
    I then put my scandisk for my phone into my computer and just copy and pasted the new .qcp file to it because I do not have internet access on my phone.
    the song plays but it is low quality and I cannot apply it as a ringtone????

    please help

  19. Can get all these steps down to the point that the ringtone comes to my phone and i can save it as a sound but cant use it a as a ringtone, any ideas what i am missing, thanks and greetongs

  22. Thanks Jake. I am going to give it a try. Also, I once worked for a radio station. Try using Cool Edit or some of the Creative software for tweaking sound. Most files are accepted and can be converted in both of these softwares. I will post back if I have success at increasing volume and other issues. (Most of the scratching could be internal background noises…cool edit can clean these.)

  24. With my last 5 sprint phones, i have been make my own free ringtones from http://www.ventones.com
    for the last 2 years now. They will automatically convert an mp3 file to the proper qcp format.
    Just use their online ringtone maker or use their free phone uploader.
    You can choose the qcp format right before sending it to your phone.
    Much easier than using command lines tools.
    Here’s the link

    Ventones

  27. I’ve did everything step by step and 1 ringtone came out perfect. But now everytime i get the ringtone 2 my phone it is sped up or the song is faster than normal. Wut am i doing wrong?

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