I haven't used the built in and truthfully didn't know it existed. But Ringdroid does many things. First, it allows you to select any portion of the song selected, not just the beginning, also, you can make it as long as you like. Then you can save the selected sound bite for a ringtone, alarm or notification sound respectfully. Pretty much all you might need to do with selecting, making and setting a sound onto the Hero.
Hope that helps...
I'd pay for this program, but glad it is free, lolz