BPMcountR → Delay time calculator
Delay time calculator
Put in a tempo and every note value comes out in milliseconds, straight, dotted and triplet. These are the numbers a delay, a gate, a reverb pre-delay or a tremolo asks for when you want it to sit in time rather than near it.
Enter a tempo between 20 and 300 BPM.
Don't know the tempo? Tap it out on the counter, four taps is enough.
| Note | Straight | Dotted | Triplet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole | — | — | — |
| Half | — | — | — |
| Quarter | — | — | — |
| Eighth | — | — | — |
| Sixteenth | — | — | — |
| Thirty-second | — | — | — |
All figures in milliseconds. A dotted note is one and a half times the straight value; a triplet is two thirds of it.
Why the dotted eighth is the famous one
Set a delay to the quarter note and it lands on the next beat, which doubles the pulse and can crowd anything already there. Set it to the eighth and it lands halfway, which is tidy and a little flat. The dotted eighth lands three sixteenths later, off the beat but still in the grid, so the repeat weaves between the notes you played instead of landing on top of them. That sound is on a great many guitar records, and it is the row most people come here for.
The triplet column does the same trick in the other direction. It is what you want when the track already swings, because a straight repeat over a swung groove fights the feel.
Where each figure goes
| Effect | Usual value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythmic delay | Dotted eighth | Repeats fall between the played notes. |
| Slapback | Thirty-second, or off the grid entirely | Short enough to read as a room rather than as a repeat. |
| Reverb pre-delay | Sixteenth to thirty-second | Keeps the tail behind the transient instead of on it. |
| Gate or trance gate | Sixteenth | The chop everyone recognises. |
| Tremolo or LFO | Eighth | Two pulses per beat. Divide 1000 by the figure for hertz. |
Do it without the browser
BPMcountR carries the same table in the app, for whatever tempo is on the display, so you tap along to the track and the note lengths are already there. It also measures a tempo through the microphone, plays it back as a metronome, and keeps every measurement for the next session.
BPMcountR — Tap BPM & Metronome
Free to use. The note length calculator is part of Pro, a one-time 7,99 €.
Common questions
What is the delay time for 120 BPM?
A quarter note at 120 BPM is 500 ms, so an eighth is 250 ms and a sixteenth 125 ms. The dotted eighth, the U2 sound, is 375 ms, and the eighth triplet is 166.7 ms. Every other tempo scales from the same figure: 60000 divided by the tempo is one beat.
How do I calculate delay time from BPM?
Divide 60000 by the tempo and you have one quarter note in milliseconds. Halve it for an eighth, halve again for a sixteenth. A dotted note is one and a half times the straight value, a triplet is two thirds of it. The table above is that sum, run for every note value at once.
Which delay time should I use?
A dotted eighth sounds rhythmic without filling the bar, and it turns up on a great many guitar records for that reason. A quarter note doubles the pulse and can crowd a busy mix. Sixteenths read as thickening rather than as an echo. For reverb pre-delay, a sixteenth or a thirty-second keeps the tail behind the transient instead of on top of it.
Does this work for LFO and tremolo rates?
Yes, if your device asks for a time rather than a frequency. If it wants hertz, divide 1000 by the millisecond figure: 500 ms is 2 Hz. A tremolo set to the eighth-note figure pulses twice per beat.
Related: BPM by genre for the tempo a style usually sits at, and what an online metronome can and cannot do.