Tempo converter
Convert BPM to milliseconds and back, so your delay, reverb and LFO settings land exactly in time with the track.
That's 1.33× as fast as hip hop, while house music is 1.07× faster. One beat lasts 500 ms, the delay time to dial in.
What it means
How fast is that?
Note lengths assume 4/4 time: a bar is four beats.
Every unit
Your tempo in every unit
Learn
Three things worth knowing
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60,000 ÷ BPM
At 120 BPM a beat is 500 ms, an eighth note 250 ms, a sixteenth 125 ms. Set your delay to one of those and it locks to the groove.
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Maelzel’s metronome
Beethoven was among the first to write BPM marks, using Maelzel’s 1815 metronome. Before that, tempo was described in words such as allegro, which everyone read differently.
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Half-time and double-time
Drum and bass at 174 BPM often feels like 87. The grid and the groove can disagree, which is why producers write both numbers down.
Shortcuts
Popular tempo conversions
Background
About tempo units
Music counts beats per minute. Audio software wants milliseconds, because delays and envelopes are set in time. The bridge is simple: 60,000 divided by the BPM gives the length of one beat.