Sing your own ringtone, even if you can't!

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 11 November 2007 10:53

Your IT - Entertainment

A new online service lets you create a ringtone for your cellphone, karaoke-style, over the backing of selection of popular songs. Can't sing in tune or even in time? Don't worry - the technology will fix it. The service, Singtones , is operated by UK company Synchro Arts.  You can either download the software to produce your 'Singtone' onto your PC and then upload the finished product onto your cellphone, or somebody else's, or you can record the track over the phone.

The company says its software, Singtone Studio, "measures and scores the pitch accuracy of each vocal performance...[and] enhances the user’s voice so it sounds perfectly in-tune and in-time.

The company also develops audio processing products for the consumer market and the professional audio industry. It claims that its professional audio products are in daily use in the film, television, radio and music industries. "Synchro Arts' award-winning, patented audio product VocALign has been used in thousands of production studios worldwide, including films such as the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy and Harry Potter' and TV shows such as 'Friends' and 'Seinfeld'.

VocALign is also used to "tighten the vocal performances of pop stars including The Black Eyed Peas, Shania Twain and Take That."

According to Jeff Bloom, the founder of Synchro Arts Ltd, "People love listening to their friends’ Singtones and posting praise or criticism for others to see. The public is jaded with ringtones: they’re all the same and generally poor value. Singtones, in contrast, are reasonably-priced, fun to create and uniquely personal."

Singtones are only available to people in the UK. They cost £1.50 each and the company claims to have more than one hundred tracks available for recording, "from the latest chart hits by Leona Lewis and Kaiser Chiefs to classic tracks by The Beatles, The Police and Eva Cassidy."