How to convert music to ringtones on iPad using GarageBand?

Speaking of custom ringtone making, many people may already know that we can simply convert audios and songs to the ringtone file format and then use the custom ringtones on our mobile phones and tablets. In an earlier guide, we discussed how to convert music to ringtones using iTunes on PC and Mac, and then sync ringtones from computer to iPhone iPad iPod touch via iTunes. Today, we will introduce you an easier way to create free ringtones on iPad. Instead of iTunes, we will use GarageBand for the ringtone making. This is also a free app developed by Apple. Any iPhone iPad or iPod users can get it for free from App Store.

GarageBand was designed to help music lovers to make music from voice recordings, Apple Loops, touch instruments. In earlier guide, we showed you how to record sound on iPad using it as we noticed there is no stock voice recorder app for iPad users. And it even comes with music conversion tools which can help iOS users convert audio formats. For example, you can export music and sound from GarageBand as ringtones. Check out this tutorial to create ringtones on iPad using GarageBand. Now you may ask if it possible to convert songs stored on iPad to ringtones or is it possible to transfer music from computer to iPad and then convert them to ringtones on iPad? Luckily, GarageBand is the answer. It can help you turn your favorite songs into ringtones right on your iPhone iPad or iPod touch. Follow below steps if you want to do so.

How to convert music to ringtones on iPad using GarageBand?

There are basically three steps to make iPad ringtones from music songs. First of all, you need to add music to GarageBand; then edit the music and save only the part of the song you like and delete unwanted parts; finally export the song as ringtone on iPad. If your songs are stored on a PC or Mac, you can refer to this guide to transfer music from computer to iPad first.

Run GarageBand on iPad. Go to create a new song from the My Songs screen.
garageband create a new song on ipad

Then choose Audio Recorder from the instruments browser where you can find all kinds of touch instruments, like Piano, Guitar, Keyboard, Drums, Guitar Amp, Sampler, Strings, Bass, etc.
garageband instruments browser - choose audio recorder
The Audio Recorder opens in a screen like below. You can see the control bar of this audio recorder at the top. Tap the Track Viewer button which is just besides the microphone icon to switch to the track view of the Audio Recorder.

audio recorder in garageband on ipad
The track viewer with added music clip will look like this. Now let’s tap the Loop icon at the top right section of GarageBand to begin adding existing audio clips.
audio recorder track viewer in garageband for ipad
You can add Apple Loops, Audio Files and Music to GarageBand. Choose Music >> Songs from the drop-down menu in GarageBand.
add music to garageband audio recorder on ipad
Browse through your existing songs saved on iPad and you can drag and drop any local songs to GarageBand on iPad. Note that protected songs and those songs not stored locally on your iPad can’t be imported to GarageBand.
add songs to garageband audio recorder on ipad
Once you added songs to GarageBand, you can trim, split, cut, copy the source music to only save the favorite part of a song as the ringtone for iPad. Now you can scroll up to the second paragraph of this article and refer to the linked guide to record song using GarageBand on iPad, which should have all the tips and tricks covered about how you can edit sound and music tracks in Garageband.

The last steps is to convert music to ringtone and export ringtone from GarageBand to iPad. Again these questions have already been included in the second paragraph above. Scroll up now and click the linked tutorial about how to make ringtone on iPad using GarageBand. With only a few seconds, you will be able to convert your songs to ringtones for iPad. And you will be able to directly activate ringtones on iPad from GaragaBand. If you use other ringtones makers, you will have to sync the ringtones to iPhone iPad via iTunes firstly and after that you will need to manually activate ringtones on iPhone iPad. GarageBand however saves you a lot of trouble.

Transfer ringtones from iPad to iPhone and computer

Once you have created ringtones using GarageBand on iPad, you can also save them from iPad to computer and iPhone, so you do not have to repeat the same steps to make ringtones on iPhone using Garageband. To do that, you can refer to instructions included in following tutorial to transfer ringtones from Garageband on iPad to PC and iPhone.