Help With iTunes 9 and iPhone ringtones

[chasedan]

Hey everyone,
I'm new to the forums and have found a few discussions dealing with my questions but nothing specifically, so here goes:

I have an itunes library with hundreds of CD's that i've imported into iTunes over the years, and am currently running a Macbook Pro w/leopard. I've also purchased music through iTunes. I have (in the past year) purchased an iPhone 3GS. I've just started looking into the ringtone world and have hit some roadblocks:
The first is the $fee$ that apple charges to create them from purchased songs. :mad: Also, it seems that music that i've imported myself through CD isn't easily convertible into ringtones (m4r) ...?

My question to any guru out there is, What is the easy/simple solution to both creating 'free' ring tones from my library and how do I make my imported songs convertible to ringtone format?

I am obviously in the weeds, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks all.

[cokeacola]

http://www.ipodrepublic.com/iphone-accessories/create-free-iphone-ringtones-in-itunes/2009/06/30/

follow that link ,its not demonstrated on a mac but its easy to convert

[JasonBourne1]

I use Garageband, is very easy to do.
Go on Youtube, im sure there are loads of video tutorials.

[Invisible_J]

I believe there is a way to do it via garageband. But the all-time easiest way to get free ringtones is www.audiko.net
they have millions of ringtones and if they don't have what you want you can make your own. Once you find the particular ringtone you are looking for just click "download for iPhone" and then drag it into your iTunes library and it will suddenly be in your ringtones list.