In this series of articles, I would like to talk about some theory and practice for making successful SMAF ringtones. In this first article, we'll take an overview of the task in hand. When you first start out to create a ringtone, there are three main topics to consider:

1. the handset itself - its tiny speaker and likely noisy environment
2. the MA/SMAF audio engine - understanding what it can really do
3. and of course, the end user and what she wants to hear - the type of music, a clear indication that the phone is ringing and so on.

In future articles we'll focus more on the MA audio engine, but it is useful to start with a broad view, so let's consider these three topics in more detail...

What is important about the handset itself? Well, for a start, the audio space is very "small". There is little or no bass frequency response and playback is usually monaural (or at best with a narrow stereo field). The result is that sounds fill up the audio space quickly and are easily masked by interference with one another; this reduces the depth of the audio field. In addition, there may be a lot of background or ambient noise in the listening environment that the ringtone must compete with. And of course, this is a ringtone - you don't always have a lot of time to make your musical point!

How should you approach these challenges? Probably the most useful thing you can do is to make sure that you monitor your work through a handset - if you are making ringtones, now is the time to turn off those neat studio monitors and immerse yourself into the small audio space provided by the tiny handset speakers! If you can't fix this up for some reason, then make an audio file of your SMAF and roll off all frequencies at least up to 500Hz - that will give you an indication of the handset response. Another thing, which sounds crazy but I have found useful, is to monitor in a noisy environment (let you kids into the studio or open a window) - this tells you which voices in the mix are really going to be heard. All those subtle background effects may just be eating up polyphony and not really providing any value to the ringtone. Finally, I usually try to avoid too many layers - it's very easy to end up with a featureless "FM Organ" sound rather than a subtle and interesting orchestration where each track has good identity.

When your ears are really comfortable in the small and noisy audio space of handset ringtones, you will find that the powerful SMAF/MA audio engine has all the tools and versatility that you need to meet the challenges.

The second topic to consider is how to turn the impressive technical feature list of the SMAF/MA audio solution into real musical ringtone-benefits for your customers. The list of key features that you have begins with polyphony - up to 40 voices with the MA3. This means that you can make dense orchestrations - important for drum tracks , and also have plenty of notes available for MIDI effects such as delay echo effects or voice doubling for richer timbres. Next is the FM synth engine. FM voicing offers a great advantage to your ringtones. Firstly, the FM synth is rendered at a very high sampling rate in the handset itself (48KHz), which means that FM voices are always played back crisp and clear - they do not suffer from the compression artifacts that are inevitably associated with PCM playback in limited memory devices. Secondly, the FM synth, is truly a synth! Well, that sounds obvious, but it means you can create new and unique sounds that are contemporary and interesting or you can tweak and modify traditional sounds so that they are more effective in the small audio space of the handset. Finally, the MA-3 is a hybrid synth, and also contains an audio engine that offers PCM based voices and StreamPCM as ways to bring in recorded audio. This makes the whole timbral canvas much larger than with FM alone. Knowing how to manage the voicing features of this powerful hybrid system is a key to creating great SMAF files. Here is my take on how the different synth engines work best:

FM voicing is good for Basses, Electric Pianos, Brass, Pluck sounds, Bell/Metallic sounds and special drums. PCM is better for Strings, Pads, Choirs, Acoustic Piano, Acoustic Drums or audio loops. As I mentioned, there are two ways of using PCM - as wavetable synth sounds or as StreamPCM. If the sounds (wave files) are short, or you want to make sustaining instrument loops, add envelopes and play different pitches then make PCM wave synth sounds. If you want to loop audio chunks (drums for example) or bring in larger sections of vocal tracks, then use the StreamPCM method where external audio files can be triggered from notes on your drum track

These .mmf examples are taken from SMAF files that I have made over the last year for Yamaha's library of timbres and songs.

This little SMAF file demonstrates a "fretless bass" type sound that is easily "tweakable", and is strong in the low registers on the handset.

If you would like to try out some voice modifications on this example, you will need to rebuild this file in the ATS-MA3-SMAF from the original SMF and Voice Files for "BigBoy" that can be downloaded from this page. (If you have a hardware development kit, then the .mmf file can be opened directly). When you have downloaded the files, open the ATS-MA3-SMAF, select "Open MA-3 Voice File..." from the File Menu and open BigBoy.vm3. Now, from the File Menu select "Import from SMF..." and open BigBoy.mid. The score window of the ATS-MA3-SMAF will appear and you can make edits to the voice.

Click on the voice name "BigBoy" to open the voice editor and tweak the voice. (Either channel will do as the same voice is doubled for a de-tune chorus effect this is done by duplicating the track then adding a little pitchbend to one of them). Try adjusting the output level of operator 1 - this affects the brightness of the bass. The output level of operator 2 controls a "click" effect on the attack of the bass note. You can imagine how making these simple adjustments will help this particular bass blend well into a song.

I think this ring-tune is interesting because it demonstrates an attempt to write something in the trance genre, which is perhaps not really appropriate, given the audio limitations of handsets. You can't use a "throbbing" bass, atmospheric ambience is difficult to create and you don't have 10 minutes for the piece to develop...! As I discussed earlier, the audio space for handset ringtones is highly constrained.

Anyway, this example is one of my earlier efforts to get around the challenges. A looped sound effect (made as a PCM synth sound) mixed with a quiet vocal pad sustains throughout the piece to establish atmosphere - against this a simple electric piano playing in the upper registers with midi note delay, stands out well increasing the ambient effect. Bass, a muted guitar sound and light drums fit nicely to move the piece along. My aim here was to try and create something that had ambience and a soft edge... try tweaking the sounds and re-mixing in the ATS-MA3-SMAF. As I listen to this now, although I like the mood, I find that the piece is maybe too subtle and possibly not so effective as a ringtone - what do you think?

Finally, at the receiving end, waiting to enjoy the results of your programming work is the customer, so it is important to have some idea of her needs. Does the Ringtone clearly indicate that the phone is ringing? Is it loud enough? Does the ringtone offer useful personalization by being especially suitable for certain environments? Is the file a reasonable size for downloading? These are some of the critical considerations that should be in your mind when you begin your work, and they are best delivered by fully understanding the tools. Some of your ringtones will be original pieces, others will be versions of current hit music - these represent the largest segment of popular ringtone downloads. Make sure that the clips you choose best represent the piece in the short time available and also that they are well suited to the character of the SMAF audio engine. For your original pieces, it is a thorough knowledge of the MA audio engine. an awareness of the small audio space and recognition of your customers desires that will ensure your SMAF files make compelling and effective ringtones.

Next month, I'll get into more programming details and take a closer look at FM, its benefits and how to use them effectively.