How do I work out milliseconds per beat from BPM?

Divide 60,000 by the tempo, because there are 60,000 milliseconds in a minute. At 120 BPM each beat lasts 60,000 / 120 = 500 ms. Halve that for an eighth note (250 ms), halve again for a sixteenth (125 ms), and multiply by four for a full bar of 4/4 (2,000 ms).

What is a good BPM for a song?

It depends on the style. Ballads usually sit around 60 to 80 BPM, hip hop around 80 to 100, pop around 100 to 130, house and techno around 120 to 130, trance around 130 to 140, and drum and bass around 170 to 175. Most chart music lands between 90 and 130 BPM, so that range is a safe starting point.

How does tap tempo work?

You tap a button in time with the music and the calculator records the time of each tap. It averages the gaps between taps, then divides 60,000 by that average gap to get beats per minute. More taps give a steadier average, so tap along for at least a full bar. If you stop for more than a couple of seconds the count resets and you can start fresh.

BPM Calculator

This BPM calculator converts a tempo in beats per minute into the length of each beat in milliseconds, along with the durations of the common note values musicians and producers actually use: the eighth note, the sixteenth note and a full bar of 4/4. Type a tempo and the timings update instantly, or use the tap tempo button to find the BPM of a song you are listening to: tap in time with the beat and the calculator averages the gaps between your taps to estimate the tempo, filling the BPM box for you. Producers use these numbers constantly. Delay and reverb effects sound tightest when their times are locked to the tempo, so a quarter note delay at 120 BPM should be 500 ms, an eighth note 250 ms, and a reverb pre-delay is often set near a sixteenth note. DJs use BPM to plan transitions between tracks, drummers use it to programme click tracks, and video editors use bar lengths to cut footage on the beat. The calculator assumes a 4/4 time signature for the bar length, which covers the vast majority of popular music, and every figure is a straight division of the 60,000 milliseconds in a minute.

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Tempo

BPM

Or find the tempo by tapping

Tap along with the beat for at least four taps. The count resets if you pause for more than 2.5 seconds.

500 ms

per beat (quarter note at 4/4)

Eighth note250 ms

Sixteenth note125 ms

One bar of 4/42,000 ms

Note durations assume a 4/4 time signature with the beat on the quarter note. For dotted notes, multiply the plain note value by 1.5; for triplets, multiply by two thirds.

How it works

BPM stands for beats per minute, and a minute is 60,000 milliseconds, so the length of one beat is simply 60,000 divided by the tempo. Everything else follows from that one number: an eighth note is half a beat, a sixteenth note is a quarter of a beat, and a bar of 4/4 is four beats. The tap tempo button works in reverse. Each tap is timestamped, the calculator averages the gaps between your taps, and 60,000 divided by that average gap is the tempo. The more taps you give it, the steadier the estimate, because one slightly early or late tap matters less across a longer run. Pause for more than 2.5 seconds and the taps reset so a stray click does not pollute the next measurement.

Worked example

Take a track at 120 BPM, the default here and a very common tempo for pop and house. One beat is 60,000 / 120 = 500 ms, so a quarter note delay should be set to 500 ms. An eighth note is 250 ms, which is the classic setting for a slap-back or rhythmic delay, and a sixteenth note is 125 ms, useful for tight pre-delay on a reverb. A full bar of 4/4 lasts 4 x 500 = 2,000 ms, so a one-bar loop is exactly two seconds long. If you wanted a dotted eighth delay, the trick behind many famous guitar and synth lines, you would multiply 250 ms by 1.5 to get 375 ms.

Related calculators

Metronome: an online click at any tempo.
Frequency Calculator: frequency, period and wavelength.
Running Pace Calculator: pace, speed and race times.
Typing Speed WPM Calculator: words per minute.

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