iMelody is a non-
polyphonic
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
ringtone
A ringtone, ring tone or ring is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming call. Originally referring to and made by the electromechanical striking of bells, the term now refers to any sound on any device alerting of a new incoming ...
exchange object format,
Sony Ericsson W800 White Paper (R2A)
(PDF file, page 19) used for mobile phone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
s xtension: .imy defined by Ericsson
(lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...
and Sony Ericsson
Sony Mobile Communications Inc. ( ja, ソニーモバイルコミュニケーションズ株式会社) was a multinational telecommunications company founded on October 1, 2001, as a joint venture between Sony Group Corporation and Ericsson. I ...
together with other manufacturers and is based on Ericsson's proprietary eMelody format. This ringtone format also supports codes that can control the vibration motor, backlight, LED lights and volume of the device. The iMelody format was made because the eMelody had some musical limitations.
Transferring melody to mobile phones
In order to transfer these ringtones to a mobile phone, one can simply send an SMS message
Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...
with the iMelody/eMelody text as the text of the message, or make a plain text file containing the iMelody/eMelody text, using the extension of either .imy for iMelody or .emy for eMelody, and transfer the file to the mobile phone by Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
, IrDA
The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) is an industry-driven interest group that was founded in 1994 by around 50 companies. IrDA provides specifications for a complete set of protocols for wireless infrared communications, and the name "IrDA" also ...
(infrared), or by a data cable. The file could also be attached to an MMS MMS may refer to:
Science and technology Network communication protocols
* Multimedia Messaging Service for mobile phones
* Microsoft Media Server, a content-streaming protocol (mms://)
* Manufacturing Message Specification for real time proces ...
message or an e-mail message.
iMelody
MIME: "text/x-iMelody" or "audio/iMelody"
Extension: ".imy"
Here is an example of an advanced ringtone in the iMelody format, this is a silent ringtone that only makes the phone's vibrating motor vibrate constantly:
BEGIN:IMELODY
VERSION:1.2
FORMAT:CLASS1.0
BEAT:25
MELODY:vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeon (r2vibeonvibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2vibeonr2ledonr2vibeonr2vibeon
END:IMELODY
Another example of an advanced ringtone, which makes the vibrating motor vibrate constantly, the backlight of the phone's display blink and plays a simple tone:
BEGIN:IMELODY
VERSION:1.2
FORMAT:CLASS1.0
BEAT:900
STYLE:S1
MELODY:(vibeonbackoff*6c5ledon*6d5ledoff*6e5ledon*6f5ledoff*6g5ledon*6a5ledoff*6b5ledon*6a5ledoff*6g5*6f5*6e5*6d5*6c5backon*6d5*6e5*6f5*6g5*6a5*6b5*6a5*6g5*6f5*6e5*6d5@0)
END:IMELODY
eMelody
MIME: "text/x-eMelody" or "audio/e-melody"
Extension: ".emy"
Here is an example of a ringtone in eMelody format:
BEGIN:EMELODY
VERSION:1.0
NAME:Test melody 1
COMPOSER:John Smith
MELODY:+f+a+fa(b)bdcC+GA+d+#c+dfg+daea+d+#c+e+f+e+fa(b)bdC+EA+d+#c+dfgba+d+#C
END:EMELODY
External links
Specification (non official page)iMelody formatiMelody Maker
References
{{Reflist
Computer file formats
Mobile telecommunications standards
Musical notation