Album Art, AudioBooks & Creating Ringtones

Classic/ Mobile/ Download BookMark
Updated: 25 Sept 2009



Downloading Music from the Internet, Part 1

Here is basic guide to downloading music from the Internet. Let me first say, I do not endorse illegal downloading, i offer any details purely as information on current practices on the internet.
The reason i haven't mentioned it is because most of it involves copyright infringement making it illegal.
In the old days there was Napster, Kazaa, Limewire, and for the last few years Bit Torrents and more recently Rapidshare Blogs. As you might know to download music you need a Bit Torrent client like Utorrent, Transmission, Bitcomet that can convert files from websites like IsoHunt, Mininova, Pirate Bay or BitJunkie.

What you might nor know is that there is a Website for legal downloads called Legaltorrents offering a host of free audiobooks, Music etc. What you need then is a Bit Torrent client for your N95 or 5800 and SymTorrent for S60 is just that!

SymTorrent for S60
Click on the application name above to visit their website

I have to say that i would recommend downloading using a PC rather than a phone, purely for size and connection principles. I tested it on my N95 and Syntorrent works and is capable downloading the same files as any other Bit Torrent clients. The ability is there but the ease and stability of PC performance not to mention battery life makes downloading to PC a practical idea.

Downloading Music from the Internet, Part2

I wanted to highlight another way to download music from the Internet, it doesn't have much to do with the N95 except that you might play the music on your phone, but i still wanted to highlight current Internet practices.

As with Bit torrents i dont encourage the downloading of illegal material, if you like an artist buy their music.

Rapidshare Blogs is a term i use for Internet blogger websites that host music via Rapidshare (A free file hosting website). Technically the hosting of copyrighted material is illegal and therefore most of these blogger sites mention that they are providing links to the files only.

Rapidshare blogs provide an alternative to Bit torrent downloading that i mentioned last week. They use direct connection from the Rapidshare servers to your PC and generally have faster download speeds but with Rapidshare restrictions on the file size and only one file at any one time. One problem is that the rapidshare links become broken, but the amount of music available is enormous. Some websites specialising in albums that are not available on CD that often have become forgotten, while others cater for the authors specific interests.
I really admire the dedication and attention to detail of the 1000's of Rapidshare blogs of there.
Good Work!!

I have found a few as examples, Click the image to visit the website:
Freewave: A search engine for rapidshare blogs, Lots of Info on this site and took me a while to understand the layout.


Bentley Funk 2: Good for old and rare Funk,Soul and RnB. He has 2 websites original is here.


Babakazoo's: Good for Classic 70's and 80's retro stuff


Sarajevo-x.com Soundtracks: This is not technically a blogger site, Its more of a forum website but you can find over 60 pages of Soundtracks with some really obscure stuff.




Editing Mp3's using iTunes

Apple iTunes can be used to edit Mp3 for N95 and N95 8GB, i personally prefer to use MP3tag but many people already use iTunes so i have created this simple tutorial to show how easy it is to edit Mp3 info and add album artwork.
You cannot edit the N95 directly using iTunes therefore you will have to edit the albums in your "iTunes Library". There is no need to register with apple to get artwork but you will have to manually search for the Album Covers, this allows you to create you own picture if you want.

Editing iTunes Library

1. First use Google Image Search to find the Album Artwork you want and save it on your Desktop (Make sure it is a exact square but cropping in photoshop if necessary) I recommend using images of 256x256 pixels or more and they must BE .JPEG or .JPG NOT .PNG files.

2. Open iTunes and select Library / Music from the left hand panel, there are 3 views formats List, Album and Cover flow (my preferred). I have used Cover flow as it easy to see the images.

3. Highlight the Album you want to edit by selecting all the tracks (Select one track and use Shift Key and select bottom track) then right click and select Get Info, as shown in the images below:














4. Now a Mp3 edit box will appear, Check that the Info is correct and if no Artist name appears it is because there are differences in the name. iTunes has a few categories which are useful to clear avoiding albums fragmenting.
I would tick the box but leave blank "Album Artist", "Compilation" and "Disc number"
Then double click on the Artwork box and locate the image you saved earlier.
Then click ok to complete















5. If you are adding a new image to an album with artwork, i have found it is better to remove the old image first, by checking the box and leaving blank, and then redoing the process with the new image.

6. That's it you should now be able to connect up you N95 and move the Tracks from your music library to your phone via the PC suite or Nokia Phone Browser.



Nokia Default Ringtones
Do you miss your old polyphonic ringtones? Well probably not that much, But if you want to find an old favourite or just a bit of phone Nostalgia, here's something for you.
The default ringtones on Nokia phones are stored on the internal memory and are difficult to extract but thanks to Gizmogates you can download loads of Nokia default ringtones, from N97 to 6220.






More Nokia Default Ringtones
For More Nokia Default Ringtones can download this Nokia Tones Zip file








AudioBooks Tutorial

Nokia AudioBooks
Nokia AudioBooks is an application that allows you to listen to audiobooks on your N95. On of the advantages of is that Audiobooks are around 10 times smaller in size than a low quality Mp3 of the same length.
You can Download Nokia Audiobook Player for S60 3rd Edition FeaturePack 1
You will also need to get the Nokia Audiobooks Manager which can convert .Wav files into Audiobook format.







Converting Mp3 files into .Wav
You can convert Mp3 files into audiobook format but you but the Audiobooks manager can only convert .Wav file so you will have to first convert the Mp3files into .Wav .This is simple to do using Super.
1. 'Drag and drop' the Mp3 file into the box below the Output settings, Then select the output Wav from 'Output container box' drop down menu in the top left.
2. Then press Encode, the files new files can now be converted into Audibook amr-wb/ amb format .














Converting .Wav files into AudioBooks for N95
1. First download the Nokia AudioBook Manager from here
2. The unzipped folder can be placed in C:\Program Files or and place of your choice,
3. Run the NokiaAudiobookManager.exe and you will see the interface as below
4. Give your book a Name in the top blank box then click on the 'Select files' tab to add your files
5. You can also add a jpeg image of your choice usually the book cover by clicking 'Select picture' this is optional.
6. Now press 'Process' and the manager will convert your files into a folder with all the necessary info.
7. The application will if you want to transfer the folder to your phone, but you can manually transfer

Manually transferring Audiobooks to Nokia N95
Audiobooks need to be transferred to your external memory card in an Audiobooks folder, if one has not been created by the application you can manually add a new folder to the root folder eg.
E:/ Audiobooks. Place the new converted folder as such E:/ Audiobooks/James Bond-Live and let die.
When you open you audiobooks on your N95 you should now see the book listed.

Free AudioBooks at LibriVox
You can download some freeware AudioBooks at LibriVox, click here to search their Catalogue



Creating Ringtones and Message Alert tones from Mp3 music

This tutorial will show you how to create a short music clip to use on your phone as Ringtone or Message tone.
You will need an Mp3 music file (song), Mp3 editor (MP3direct cut), Pc or Mac to edit and transfer the file to the Phone.
Most Ringtones only need to be up to 20 seconds in length as an Answer phone will usually cut in at around 17 sec. Message tone length is your personal choice as you will be the one listening to it but usually they are less than 10 sec in length.
1. Download Mp3DirectCut from the PCSOS freeware page and install on your Computer.

2. Start the program and Select File/ Open ... and select your Mp3 music file










3.You can now edit your song. Use the Play/Stop buttons to listen to the track, then select the Start of the track by using the Left mouse click and the End by using the right mouse click. As shown below left. Now go to Edit from the Menu and and Select Crop .










4. Now you have your music clip you can create a simple start Fade in and Fade out for the end of the Track. This can be easily done by selecting a short segment at the start of the track then go to Edit on the Menu and select Create simple fade. You can listen to the new edit by pressing the Play button. As shown Above right. Repeat this at the end of the track to create a simple Fade Out.

5. To save your new Clip go to File from the Menu and select Save all to save your ringtone. Now you just need to transfer to your phone via Nokia Pc suite or by bluetooth etc.

Two other useful features on Mp3directcut are:
To remove a portion of a track, just simply highlight the part you want to remove and select 'Delete' on your computer.
If the sound level is too high or too low, highlight your selection and Go to Edit / Gain here you can increase or decrease the levels (It is best to lock your left and right channels).

Here are two Short Mp3 files i created whilst making this Tutorial. download by clicking on the image or right click and 'Save Link As...' (depending on your browser set up)









Personalised Album Art using MP3TAG and MP3 EXT (For PC)
If you want to embed Personalised Album Art into MP3 tracks before you transfer them to your Phone you can easily do this with MP3TAG, but first i want to show you a great freeware program for viewing MP3 files on your PC. This hasn't got anything to do with N95 it only works when viewing on windows PC, but its so good i had to mention it!

MP3 ext
This program was last updated in 2004, so its not new but its so under-used, i Love it!!. Below is an screenshot of part my MP3 music collecton. (Yeah they are all icons the album art work)

When i view and Album details using MP3ext i can see the Bitrate quality of each track, below we can see that there are a few different quality rates.This is because they are downloaded from different sources. The program works on XP and Vista, you can choose different icon themes, but i have created my own, which you can see below, if you want a copy of the icon set. Click either icon below. I have updated the icon set and put some Install notes in the zip file as it can get a bit complicated to set the theme.




Adding Personalised Album Artwork with MP3TAG
MP3TAG is a freeware application for Windows PC that allows you to edit MP3 info which includes adding album art, which will show up in your N95.

Applications like iTunes and Windows Media player 11 can add artwork to Mp3 tracks that you buy online but other music you may have download usually doesn't have any album art or has artwork on some tracks or poor quality images. Below you can see that the Thriller album has already has some album art, but strangely its of the cd back? and two other tracks have nothing, but using the MP3ext i can see the bitrate quality as an icon, rather than just showing a MP3 symbol.










Once you have downloaded and Installed MP3TAG you can rightclick on any MP3 folder using the shell extension and select Mp3tag.
Now select all the tracks ( Ctrl A) and in the Tag panel (which i undocked) right click on the Album Art circle symbol and select Add Cover



















This will open a dialogue box where you can navigate to any image you have saved. I have found that the optimum size of an image for the N95 album artwork is 160x160px, although i make mine 256x256 because i view most album art on my PC, the larger image is compressed slightly by the phone which reduces the quality. I have downloaded 2 images of the Thriller, one traditional cover and one alternative take of the cover.
I simply select the image i want, adjust any other tags like Comments and Genre (Don't get me started) and select Save.





Now you can see that when i view the albums on my laptop In List and Details view you can see the Mp3 info and it shows the MP3ext bitrate as an icon (rather small), but when i increase the size in Tiles, Icon (Small, Med. and Large etc) i can see the album artwork i embedded earlier.

Now all you need to do is transfer it to you phone and the Artwork will now appear in your music player when you play the tracks.






Embedding Album Art Images into Mp3 files

End Result















The first thing you will need is a program to embed your Mp3 files. I recommend Mp3tag its is excellent and FREE.

You can get it from the PCSOS Freeware Page


1) Once you have installed the program, start it up and located an Mp3 album you want to embed.

2) Then highlight all the tracks and Select from the tool bar the World/ internet logo, Then select "Amazon. de" (usually works the best)



Click image to enlarge











3) A new dialog box will appear and you can choose the correct album, As shown below






Click image to enlarge









4) Then another dialog box will appear showing the files new infomation and Album Art. Click OK. As shown below.








Click image to enlarge










5) Thats it! you can now transfer the Album to your N95 phone and the Album Art will show up Automatically.