Database Users

Rise and Shine

I'm having difficulty getting up in the morning! Does anyone know of a good alarm tool for the xda. The one that comes with it never seems to work/wake me up. The functionality is rubbish .

I have no problems whatsoever...
Be sure you checked the checkbox next to the desired alarm, and you selected the appropriate days the alarm will sound
-edit- Oh, and try a decent WAV file, I prefer the "Good Morning Charlie!" from Charlies Angels

hey,
i agree; the alarm function of the xda seems to be fine. i use the wav file from finding nemo where all those crazy seagulls keep on saying "mine! mine! mine!" that's when i want to be really awakened; but when i prefer to use an alarm but gently have it wake me up i use a wav file for a song with a soft opening.
you can always download a 3rd party alarm app such as stoptime; which comes with a timer, mirror, calendar and stopwatch program along with the alarm clock.
2 cents
robs

I tried this last night. However, the alarm only comes on for me when you switch the screen on. i.e if i set the alarm at 1.00pm. It wont go off. However, as soon as I switch it on the aralarm sounds. Am I doing something wrong?
Also I only have a limited selection of alarams. How do you add other wav files in?
Thanks

You may need the WakeUp Tweak program from:
http://www.burroak.on.ca/wm2k3tweaks.html

Thanks for that . I'll try it out, but maybe not on the weekend!

hey jupiter,
you can easily add wav files by simply while using activesync; just copy wav files and paste them into the windows folder of the xda. the wav files should then appear when you want to choose a sound for an alarm. however; do note that there are SOME wav files which don't seem to work. i did read in this forum that this has to do with the wav file format...whatever that is as i'm not familiar with it. but it does happen; some wav files don't work. sadly i can't find the forum thread where this was discussed.
cheers
robson

That works. Brilliant. Thanks

Some Wavs do not work because they are not in PCM WAV Format, more likely they are MPEG layer-3 WAV format.
Converting them is easy - using the windows sound recorder utility (sndrec32.exe), open the wav,
Click File->Properties
Click "Convert Now"
On the next screen, ensure the format drop-down is PCM, then change the attributes to whatever you want.
Personally I use 11.025 khz, 8 Bit, Mono

MIDI as Alarm

Hi,
I read that it is possible to have MIDI files as alarm sounds so i put a midi file i use on my old SE in the windows directory and when i go to choose the alarm tone i don't see it. is this supported in MDA Compact? what am i doing wrong? please advise. thanks

were did you read this? afaik... you can use midi, wav, mp3, wma for ringtones (via caller id app) windows mobile uses wav and wma for ringtones, but wav only for alerts. hope this helps.

I think it was on the AlarmToday user forum. i thought something was wrong. anyway, thanks for replying, it's a shame that midi cannot be used for alarms i don't think it's a technical or logical impossibility but microsoft works in mysterious ways i suppose. if there's a workaround or a program that would do this i would greately appreciate it if someone could point it out. once again, many thanks

Well, if you have a midi player for pocket pc installed you might be able to pull it off with AlarmToday.
On their site I read:
"Powerful custom alarms to play music (including complete songlists, MP3, WMA, OGG or Realplayer), open documents or applications and much more"
This should in theory make it possible to create an alarm event that starts the midi player software with the midi file of your choice.

Why not convert your midi file to wav it's very simple and then you can use it as an alert?

Do you know the wav file type is so much bigger than the other types of audio?

I sure do realize that but why would you need a whole song for an alert. Change the stereo to mono and 16 bit to 8 bit and trim it down to a length that it needs to be as an alert and it will not be much if any bigger than the midi file.
If you can't live with the shorter version then you should stay with midi because you are right they take up much lesss room, but I myself don't want a whole song played for an alert. The longest one I would ever use would be 2 seconds then let it repeat again for each alert.
If you use this procedure you can have many wav files as alerts.
I've had a recording studio here in Nashville TN since the early 80's and over the years I found out that if you will bend a little there is always a way to get what you want. Let me know if you need any help with turncating your wav files

Thanks for your thoughts
stratguy said:
I sure do realize that but why would you need a whole song for an alert. Change the stereo to mono and 16 bit to 8 bit and trim it down to a length that it needs to be as an alert and it will not be much if any bigger than the midi file.
If you can't live with the shorter version then you should stay with midi because you are right they take up much lesss room, but I myself don't want a whole song played for an alert. The longest one I would ever use would be 2 seconds then let it repeat again for each alert.
If you use this procedure you can have many wav files as alerts.
I've had a recording studio here in Nashville TN since the early 80's and over the years I found out that if you will bend a little there is always a way to get what you want. Let me know if you need any help with turncating your wav files
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I still use a SE P800 smartphone and what you just wrote is what I had to do. WAV files are big but with a bit of creativity in making an alert or ringtones it is just to easy. " Ask and you shall receive"
X-man germ

Cool by the way where did you get that last part of your handle "germ" are you a musician:?:

stratguy said:
Cool by the way where did you get that last part of your handle "germ" are you a musician:?:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I am not a musician. My username is just a nick name from my first name and the germ part is only short for Germany.

Cool thanks, germ is a term we use in the music biz. Thats why I wonered :lol:

Maybe my music taste in "Rage against the Machine" which leads left can explain why I choose my name. Power to the People.

Wat Software do U use to do this? I am looking for a software that can transform anything in everything (mp3, wav) from original CD's. and cut them in small durations. I don't find that...

I use CDex, which BTW is a free program. I love it

alarm tone?

am i being thick? is it possible to set a mp3 as your wake up alarm? iv tried everything and seem to be stuck with the standard tones that come with windows for the alarm :?

You're not being thick, but on the same merit it is actually possible, so I'll let you make your own mind up about that
Don't think MP3's work, but convert it toa wav file and stick it in the \windows\ directory and it'll appear on the list of available sounds

god bless you child, no more shall my 515 wake up calls be hounded by horrific tones :shock:

Arrgh - Alarm Woes :(

Morning All,
I'm new to the forum (well posting) but have been reading the wealth of information on here for the past few weeks - this site is an awesome resource, I've learnt so much!
Anyway, I've had my Mini-S (wizard) a week now, and am mostly happy and impressed by it. I guess my main (few) annoyances are WM5 related, rather that with the device itself.
Anyway, I always use my phone as an alarm clock. I wanted to play an MP3 as the tone, so have converted one to wav, and saved in the windows directory.
I've set up my alarm schedule, for all weekdays at 6.30. Then click on the little bell icon and set the 'play sound' to my wav file, 'repeat sound' is unticked, 'flash light' is ticked, and vibrate is unticked.
But, for the past two mornings, all I get is the device sounding the standard notification alert tone, and popping up a message box for my alarm. Luckily my wife was awake this morning when it went off - as the tiny alert tone would never have woken me up.
Any ideas where I'm going wrong - I can't think what else I need to set for it to play that wav file????
Cheers all,
Paul

How is the wav file encoded? That may make a difference. Maybe you're using too high a bitrate. If you feel like buying a program, SPBTime is what I use, and it lets me specify MP3's as ringtones. Great prog. Only thing that'd make it better is if it supported WMA, but c'est la vie.

WAV file...
I assume that you can play the wav file thru media player on your device?
How big is the wav file?
Charlie Grillo

Hmm, I don't think the encoding or bitrate is a problem, as I can play the wav file fine, and when I select it in 'play sound' it plays just fine.
I also converted an mp3 clip to wav to use as an mms/sms message alert - and that works fine too.
My problem is not with assigning mp3's as ringtones, it's just with the blumin' alarm functionality in WM5. :evil:
Perhaps I should try a seperat alarm prog? Any suggestions....
It just bugs me that such a simple function should work without problems....

Re: WAV file...
cgrillo said:
I assume that you can play the wav file thru media player on your device?
How big is the wav file?
Charlie Grillo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Mate, yep - can play it fine.
It's <1MB I believe....

I've given up on Windows Mobile alarms about 2 years ago. I highly recommend this program which is ingeniously named Alarm Clock. And best of all, its freeware!

I also use my phone (Vario II / HTC Tytn) as my alarm clock but found that I couldn't get on very well with the standard WM5 alarms (I am very difficult to wake and need a heavy duty loud and constantly repeating alarm ... with snooze function ).
Instead of using WM5 alarms, I downloaded a freeware audio player named Mortplayer (Click here to go to Developers site) and it works brilliantly. It has lots of functions like increasing volume alarm, run playlist or particular file, snooze function at your own definable intervals etc.. really good little free program.

fone_fanatic said:
I've given up on Windows Mobile alarms about 2 years ago. I highly recommend this program which is ingeniously named Alarm Clock. And best of all, its freeware!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks - I'll give it a try

Installed and works a treat
Cheers all...

midi file for alarm how?

midi in alarm a clock.mid file only 5 KB(plays 1minutes) becomes 2.5MB(plays 1minutes) wav file for alarm which when placed in /windows folder occupies a significant amout of space ,is there some registry entry for
1.)mid could be used for clock alarm or
2.)may be pick clock tune from card
else whatever you could suggest.

Dont double post.
Anyway, you don't really need a song to ring you up? a repeating tune for 5 seconds will probably do the job. Anyway, AFAIK, there isn't ways of doing it, but you can get 3rd party alarm software which support mp3 formats that can be located anywhere.

you can also dec the space the wav takes up by
making it mono
choosing sample rate of 3Khz and 8bit
it's not like the externak speakers on these pda's do hifi surround in dvd audio quality

there is a nokia clockalarm1.midi ring tone which plays for 1 minutes and its only 5 kb even if i make mp3 file of 2.5 mb wav file i would have to use phone alarm ,i am deaf when i am asleep thats why i needed my prophet to help me wake up like my nokia6630 used to do but i see each side has pros and cons.
and sorry for the double post it just came into my mind to globally post later ,i wish there was a delete button to remove my other post.

Of all the information (silly on the battery thing, but probably you just want to have yourself a record somewhere, I guess) you put in your signature, you didn't tell what OS you are using (i.e. WM5/6?).
If you were to be using WM6, you can have it converted to 1 minute WMA and I think the WM6 alarm takes WMA, which a 1 minute tune would take.. approx 500K. Take note, that if there were to be any plugin for midi, probably it would take as much space anyway.
ANYWAY, since you are those with problem waking up, I would seriously advising you to take up a 3rd party alarm software to solve this problem. The other reason is that, the WM alarm does not override the system volume (i.e. if you happened to set the volume down, you will get a whispering alarm).