Convert any BPM to delay times in milliseconds, Hz and seconds for whole notes, halves, quarters, eighths, sixteenths and 32nds — straight, dotted and triplet.
Built and maintained by Paul Clark, Redmoon Software · Checked against what this tool computes on
| Note | Straight (ms) | Dotted (ms) | Triplet (ms) | Hz |
|---|
1 beat = 60 000 / BPM milliseconds. The table below scales by note value (whole=4×, eighth=½×, sixteenth=¼×, …) and applies the dotted (×1.5) and triplet (×2/3) modifiers.
Use these times as the absolute delay (Pre-Delay) on a delay or reverb, or as the attack/release on a compressor for tempo-synced effects.
One equation drives the whole page: 60000 divided by BPM gives the milliseconds in a beat, so 120 BPM is exactly 500 ms. The table scales that beat by note value — a whole note is 4×, a half 2×, an eighth 0.5×, down to 0.0625× for a sixty-fourth — and adds two more columns, dotted at 1.5× and triplet at two-thirds. A Hz column inverts each figure as 1000 divided by the millisecond value, which is what an LFO rate control wants.
BPM is the only real input, accepting 20 to 400 in steps of 0.1, with preset buttons at 60, 75, 90, 100, 110, 120, 128, 140, 174 and 180 that cover most house, hip-hop and drum and bass sessions. Enter the tempo your project is actually running at, including any decimal, because a 0.5 BPM error compounds across a long delay tail. Leave the reference selector on Quarter note = 1 beat, which is the standard reading.
The reference selector multiplies every value in the table without changing any of the note labels, so choosing Half note = 1 beat at 120 BPM leaves the row still headed quarter note showing 1000 ms. The numbers themselves are mathematically exact, but they assume a rigid grid: swing, shuffle and humanised timing all shift the real note positions, and a delay set to host sync may round differently from these figures.
A quarter note is 500 ms, an eighth 250 ms and a sixteenth 125 ms. For rhythmic interest, the dotted eighth at 375 ms is the classic guitar and synth setting, while the eighth-note triplet lands at 166.7 ms.
351.6 ms. At 128 BPM a beat is 468.75 ms, so a straight eighth is 234.4 ms and the dotted version adds half again. The dotted eighth is the signature house and pop delay because it cuts across the four-on-the-floor pulse.
Divide 1000 by the millisecond figure, which the Hz column does for every row. At 120 BPM the beat is 2.000 Hz, an eighth note is 4 Hz and a sixteenth 8 Hz. Set a free-running LFO to those rates to lock it to tempo.
A dotted note is one and a half times its straight length, so it falls behind the grid and creates a lurching cross-rhythm. A triplet is two-thirds of the straight length, fitting three notes where two would go, which pushes the feel forward.
Yes, that is one of the tool's stated uses. Setting a release to a sixteenth or eighth note in milliseconds makes the compressor recover in time with the track, which is the basis of a pumping mix. Pre-delay on reverb works the same way.
At a given tempo a quarter note lasts 60,000 ÷ BPM milliseconds — 500 ms at 120 BPM — and every other note value follows by halving, dotting or dividing into three. Getting that one number gives you delay times, LFO rates, reverb pre-delay and gate timings without further arithmetic.
Dotted values are 1.5× the base and triplets are two-thirds, which is why a dotted eighth delay lands off the pulse and a triplet delay rolls against it.
A delay set a few milliseconds off the true value drifts audibly across a bar, and the drift compounds with every repeat until the tail is clearly out of time with the track. That error is small enough to be invisible on a knob and obvious in the mix.
The exception worth knowing is that a deliberately detuned delay — a few milliseconds off grid — can sit better than a perfectly locked one, because a mathematically exact repeat can sound mechanical. Start from the calculated value and deviate on purpose rather than by accident.
Reverb pre-delay is the other common use: setting it to a note value ties the onset of the reverb tail to the groove rather than smearing across it.
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