BPM to Delay Time Calculator

A quarter note lasts 60000 / BPM milliseconds. Every other value scales from that, so an eighth note is half a quarter note and a sixteenth is a quarter of it. At 120 BPM a quarter note is 500 ms.

A dotted note lasts 1.5 times the straight value, giving a wider, bouncing groove. A triplet lasts two thirds of the straight value, fitting three even notes where two would normally sit.

At a set tempo a dotted eighth delay creates the syncopated, galloping echo heard on countless guitar and synth parts. At 120 BPM that is 375 ms, which sits just off the straight eighth to add motion.

It is the delay time expressed as a rate, calculated as 1000 divided by the milliseconds. Use it to tune a tempo-synced LFO, tremolo or filter sweep to the same note value as your delay.

Yes. Pre-delay and reverb tail length are often set to a note value so the space breathes with the track. Pick a note value and use the same milliseconds for pre-delay, or a longer value for the decay.

Slapback is a single short repeat, usually 80 to 120 ms. At faster tempos an eighth or sixteenth note lands in that window, so read those rows and pick the one that feels snappy without smearing.

Many hardware units and free plugins have no host sync and only accept a raw time. This table gives you the exact millisecond value to type in, and the Hz column helps when a unit is dialed in by rate instead.

No. Any tempo greater than zero works, including decimals such as 128.5 BPM. The math is continuous, so a half-BPM change simply shifts every delay time by a small amount.

Yes. The whole table is computed in your browser with no upload, so your tempo and session details never leave your device and it keeps working with no connection.