MetaChat - What does your cell phone ring sound like?

Mine is dadaleDINK dadaleDINK dadadleDINK, etc.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 12 August | 14:29

This.

posted by mygothlaundry 12 August | 14:37

Bum, bum BUM, bum BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM, bum, bum bum, Bum Bum Bum Bum Bum Bum. Bum bum...

Hint: It's the first several notes of a well-known piece by Mozart, briefly played/sung by Salieri and the priest in the movie Amadeus.

posted by Melismata 12 August | 14:41

Mine plays Rufus Wainwright's "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk"

posted by msali 12 August | 14:44

Boodeet deekadeeka deedoo... boodeet deekadeeka deedoo....

It used to play humpback whale sounds, but that can really freak out a crowd of strangers -- sounds like a constipated giant.

posted by Hugh Janus 12 August | 14:48

Looney Toons! DOO do do doDOOdoDOOdododoooooooooooo

posted by Kangaroo 12 August | 14:48

Mine plays the theme to the cartoon Animaniacs.

posted by bunnyfire 12 August | 14:50

RING ring... RING ring... RING ring

stayin' old school

posted by gaspode 12 August | 14:51

*vibrate* *vibrate*

If I can hear your ringtone it's too fucking loud. Turn it down already.

posted by dersins 12 August | 14:52

Refrain from this, though I usually try to leave the phone on vibrate when I'm out of the house.

But it's a total earworm for me, which means that every time the phone rings, I get the song stuck in my head for hours. Which is starting to drive me insane.

It used to be David Gray's Sail Away, which I liked, but that for some reason always got "Rocket Man" stuck in my head, which I very much did not like.

posted by occhiblu 12 August | 14:53

tdaan tdaan. . .tdaan tdaan. . .*very quiet*

posted by rainbaby 12 August | 14:54

Usually vibrate, sometimes the first twenty seconds or so of this song.

posted by box 12 August | 14:56

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
(vibrate, all the time)

posted by Hellbient 12 August | 14:57

Mine plays "Raw Power" by The Stooges.

Yah, I know.

I should change it. To "Shake Appeal".

posted by BitterOldPunk 12 August | 15:05

Until last week I had "Needle in a Haystack" by the Velvelettes, but because I knew I'd be having the building contractor calling me while I was in the office, I changed it to the classic telephone ring.

I had 'Bananaphone' for a little while but it got very old very quickly.

posted by essexjan 12 August | 15:08

Mine's Gravity Kills "Goodbye". It's a hoot.

posted by sperose 12 August | 15:08

Durrrrrrrrrr! Durrrrrrrrrrr! Durrrrrrrrrrr!

The old one played "Girl From Ipanema", but when I got a new phone, I decided I had had enough of crappily played tunes, so I settled for something resembling a classic telephone ring.

posted by Daniel Charms 12 August | 15:11

bzzt! bzzt! 90-95% of the time (god how I *HATE* ringtones...)

the 5-10% of the time I turn the ringer on (usually at home) it's the classic old-school:

brrriing! brrriing!

same as my mom's old black lacquer rotary phone. Which is seriously the only sound any telephone should ever make.

now get off my lawn!

posted by lonefrontranger 12 August | 15:42

Durrrrrrrrrr! Durrrrrrrrrrr! Durrrrrrrrrrr!

That is pretty much mine also. In the movie "Interview," the woman's phone barked like a dog. If I could find that, I might even buy it.

The other issue is that I have NEVER EVER connected my phone to my computer, and I go back to the Motorola "brick" phones as far as how long I have had one. But I still just use it for a phone and have never used them for anything else.

posted by danf 12 August | 15:42

Rinnnngggg. I like phones to sound like phones.

posted by octothorpe 12 August | 15:44

Mine goes dink! WVRRRVRRRWWWWVRRRRRVRRRRVRRR...

I hate really audible ringtones. My work on-call phone, which I carry every other month, must at all times be audible, so it's on a drumbeat like DOOSH KSSH DUH DUH DOOBIE DOO KSSH!

posted by middleclasstool 12 August | 15:45

bingbong bingbong bingbong

posted by crush-onastick 12 August | 15:53

The delayed beep that says i missed a call/text/blah or am low on battery.
If you send me ring tones, i will customize them to your number.

posted by ethylene 12 August | 15:57

Mine sounds like an old rotary phone. A very loud rotary phone.

posted by MonkeyButter 12 August | 15:58

blunk blunk blunk, blunk blunk, blunk blunkblunkblunk. ("xylophone")

It's not bad, but I don't like it much. All the rings that came with my phone kind of suck, but I've never been able to identify a song to turn into a ringtone that I would be ok with ringing in all kinds of public situations.

I really wish I could use some of the text/email notification sounds as a ring. They tend to be nice little Ding!s or Plink!s.

posted by misskaz 12 August | 16:08

Like this. Just the first 45 seconds or so.

posted by me3dia 12 August | 16:17

My phone is always on vibrate when I leave the house.

When I'm IN the house, however, game on! I discovered last year that I could make my own ringtones by using Verizon's image thing to send "images" to my phone that were actually MIDIs. When I didn't have a job, this became an amazing way to spend time.

Currently on my phone (all original arrangements):
Arrested Development Theme Song (my go-to ring)
Dirty Water by The Standells (Go Sox!)
Take Five by Dave Brubeck Quartet
Heart of Glass by Blondie (The bridge, alternating measures of 4/4 and 3/4 bit)
Chameleon by Herbie Hancock
Pressure Drop by Toots and The Maytals

That last one I actually did in a moment of ridiculous fanboyism. I saw Toots last year and knew I was going to be getting backstage, so I made it in his honor and played it for him. He seemed impressed and slightly confused.

posted by SpiffyRob 12 August | 16:34

Some generic midi-sounding soft pap. I wish it played waka jawaka.

posted by Atom Eyes 12 August | 16:49

deedle eedle eet eet eet eet eet eet eet!

posted by Stewriffic 12 August | 17:23

Just your standard ring. Ring, ring.

Does this mean I'm boring? Probably.

posted by LoriFLA 12 August | 17:26

A friend of mine has his set to birds chirping; it's a super-realistic recording that just starts to make you think you're outside and then you realize that wherever you are is unlikely to have birds in it normally so how did those birds get in here anyway and oh, no, wait, it's just his phone.

If I could get that ringtone, I would. It's amazingly attention-grabbing without in any way being annoying.

posted by occhiblu 12 August | 17:37

i think every sudden alien sound is the phone. i am now chirp beep buzzer phobic. i will wake up before an alarm because i loathe it on a visceral level.

posted by ethylene 12 August | 17:47

Mine beeps once and then vibrates, but brodonley's is called "Tropicante!" and sounds like you've been sealed in a crate of bananas in the back of a chicken bus in rural Guatemala or something while being serenaded by the traveling musicians riding on the roof.

posted by mdonley 12 August | 17:56

brodonley's is called "Tropicante!" and sounds like you've been sealed in a crate of bananas in the back of a chicken bus in rural Guatemala or something while being serenaded by the traveling musicians riding on the roof.

I need this.

posted by BoringPostcards 12 August | 18:39

Mine sounds exactly like this:

Bad Horse!
Bad Horse!
Bad Horse!
Bad Horse!
He rides across the nation
The thoroughbred of sin
He got the application
That you just sent in
It needs evaluation
So let the games begin
A heinous crime
A show of force
A murder would be nice of course

...because I ripped the iTunes download of Dr. Horrible to mp3.

posted by it must be bunnies 12 August | 18:50

"I like the tension, the tension and the spark
(Pour yourself over me)
Yknow, I like the way you move in the dark..."

(I Like The Way, Darren Hayes)

I always seem to pick up the phone just as he finishes "tension".

posted by divabat 12 August | 19:25

tookatookatookatookatookatooka BAH DUH! tookatookatooka FUUNKABUNKADUNK BAH DAH! tookatookatooka

posted by evilcupcakes 13 August | 00:07

Doo-doo-doo-doo daa-daa-daa-daaa ba-ba ba-ba ba-baba babababa ba-ba ba-ba ba-ba bah!

posted by misteraitch 13 August | 00:51

Funny, I've been thinking of starting a ringtones thread for about a week, but I never remembered to.

I'm still somewhat fascinated (in a "still thought digital watches are really neat" Douglas Adams sort of way) by ringtones, and cell phones generally and the behaviors associated with them -- from people walking down the street having a conversation with no one, to asking hubby which type of BBQ sauce he prefers from the store aisle, to someone intently reading their text messages while crossing the street. And just the idea that we would have these musical devices that would be so common that you'd get these random bursts of pop music or whatever in any sort of context. When were the first ringtones, anyway? Less than ten years ago, now, right?

Mine, thusly, are a bit of Blondie's "Atomic" currently serving as my wake-up alarm, which I both love and hate to hit snooze on, and for incoming calls, Goldfrapp's "Strict Machine" chorus.

I don't want a ringtone that's something I like so much that after a few weeks or months I'll hate hearing it and thereby ruin the full song for me.

Before I had a real polyphonic phone I had this silly thought that "phone" type songs, say Madonna's "Hung Up", would be witty ringtones. This is in a class with my wanting to associate a burp sound with the disc eject on a Mac lo these many years ago when such first became possible.

posted by stilicho 13 August | 03:29

I made my own in my phone's music-maker app. It's a happy little song that always makes me want to start dancing!

posted by goo 13 August | 04:59

Mine plays Amy Winehouse.
However, my neighbor's is set to the Mexican Hat Dance. So whenever they're outside and get a call (often) and don't answer right away (always), my roommate and/or I jump up and start singing "I DANCE I DANCE I DANCE AROUND THE MEXICAN HAT!" in the manor of Homer Simpson.

posted by kellydamnit 13 August | 08:11

Mine sounds like a school bell: BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT! Not by choice, it was the least annoying ring that was actually audible.

The best ring I ever heard was my friend Tzim (the "z" is silent). It was his voice imitating what I presumed to be his mother's voice, in a New York accent. It began quietly: "Tim. Tim. Ya phone is ringin'. Answer da phone, Tim." Then it would bet a little louder: "Hey Tim! Ya phone is ringin'! It's ringin', Tim!" Then it would be really loud: "TIM! TIM! ANSWER DA PHONE TIM! YA PHONE IS RINGIN'!"

Made me laugh every time.

posted by Specklet 13 August | 09:08

Ring ring ring.
Used to have the R2D2 breeeppmreeeeeeeeepTOOTbeep

posted by signal 13 August | 09:19

wanting to associate a burp sound with the disc eject on a Mac lo these many years ago

I did that! It was 1991 or 1992 or something, we'd managed to borrow something called a "Mac Recorder", and one of the sounds we snagged with it (along with a lot of Twin Peaks quotage) was a heroic belch from my boyfriend.

I then dutifully put the sounds on the brand-new file server I'd just set up at work, to corrupt my co-workers. I made my disk eject burp, and that caught fire. Within a week Macs all over the building were ejecting disks to the sound of my boyfriend burping.

Shortly after that the guy dumped me, and I still had to listen to him burping all day long at work, which was no picnic.

(Also, stilicho, that was when I was a chinet regular, and I know I must have posted something about it. So there's a decent chance you actually picked up the idea from me.)

posted by tangerine 13 August | 22:02

Mine is the "bell tower" iPhone ring which sounds like, well, bells. On my previous phone, I had a baby laughing hysterically which people always found incredibly cute the first few times but which started to grate on my co-workers after a while.

posted by dg 14 August | 02:29

12 August 2008