Ring Tone Text Transfer Language
Skip contentAlso known as: RTTTL, Nokring
RTTTL (Ring Tone Text Transfer Language) is a data format originally developed by Nokia and used to store user composed ringtones on their Series 30 handsets, but has since been adopted as an industry alternative to MIDI format. RTTTL can only produce one note at a time from a range of four octaves and is therefore useful for monophonic ringtones.
An RTTTL encoded tune consists of three parts:
- The name of the tone, which is displayed on the ringtones menu
- Various settings controlling general tempo, pitch and quaver duration
- A sequence of standard notes represented by letters (using # and . for sharp and flat) with duration in quarter beats on their left and octave number on their right, separated by commas; e.g. 2e., d, 2c., b4, 1a4, c#
RTTTL (or Nokring) is commonly used when a monophonic ringtone is sent via SMS, in which case the phone will recognise the message as a tune if a flag is set in the message header. Software to convert MIDI data to RTTTL format is commonly available.
There is a good tutorial on RTTTL at www.informit.com
