Research->Ringtone->File format of Ringtone
Melody
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This page provides information about various formats
of ringtone file.
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Each phone company uses different file format
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Ringtone
melody can be made by inputting numbers from
keyboard of mobile phone. It also can be
downloaded from some web site. However, music
instruments and number of voice are different
with companies and mobile phones. Therefore,
method of inputting numbers and format of
downloading are different with companies and
mobile phones.
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SMAF and MFi |
However,
it is not true that each company and each
mobile phone has different format. There is
some standards. In general, there are two
kinds of formats for mobile phones. One is
SMAF which is used by J-Phone of
Japan
and some companies in
Europe
and US. File extension of SMAF is “MMF.”
Another is MFi that is used by NTT of Japan
and some companies in
Europe
and US. File extension of MMF is “MLD.”
If you have information which company uses
which format in your country, please send it
to me.
(Ex. Nokia of England uses MMF file.)
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Similar
structure to SMF |
SMAF
and MFi files have similar structure with SMF
(Standard MIDI File). A file is divided into
several brocks called chunk. Each chunk has
header and event data. Since it must go
through telephone network, its size must be
small. Therefore format has some mechanisms to
make file size small. For example, SMF and MFi
has event that corresponds to NOTE-ON event,
but there is no NOTE-OFF event. Instead of
having NOTE-OFF event, NOTE-ON event includes
gate time information.
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Specification of
each format |
Specification
of SMAF can be downloaded from YAMAHA web
site. Specification of MFi is not for public,
but some Japanese site has information.
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Making Ringtone
Melody File |
There
are some sequence soft for ringtone making.
There also are some tools that take midi file
and convert into ringtone file. Automated
Composing System can convert
MIDI
files into SMAF, MFi, and other mobile phone
files. |
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