BPM Tap Tempo & Delay Time Calculator | Measure a Song’s BPM and Convert to ms, Hz, Frames & Bar Lengths
BPM Tap Tempo & Delay Time Calculator is a free tool that finds a song’s tempo (BPM) and converts it into the numbers used in DTM, bands, DJing, and video editing. Tap the screen or the space bar while the song plays, and it fits a straight line to your tap times to get the BPM, also showing an error estimate, tap deviation, and half-time and double-time candidates. You can check it by layering a metronome, or get the BPM from beats counted over 15 seconds. From that BPM it lists the lengths of whole notes to 64th notes, in straight, dotted, and triplet, as milliseconds, Hz, video frames, and samples, and gives the dotted-eighth delay time often used for guitar and vocals plus tempo-synced reverb pre-delay and decay guides. It can also calculate song length from bar counts, bar counts from song length, BPM from a loop’s length in seconds (or samples), and the playback speed, pitch-fader %, and semitone change when you change the BPM.
1 beat 500 ms · 1 bar (4/4) 2 s · tempo marking Allegro (fast and lively) · common genres Rock / pop, House
Tap at a steady interval on the kick, snare, or handclaps. After about 8–16 taps the error usually drops to ±1 or less, and from the 4th tap the BPM above updates automatically.
Check with a metronome
Play it along with the song, and if the click gradually drifts ahead (behind), adjust the BPM by ±0.1.
Count over a set time
The BPM from beats counted with a stopwatch over 15 (or 30) seconds. Useful when tapping is awkward or for counting a live performance’s BPM.
Miscounting by one beat shifts it by ±4 for 15 seconds or ±2 for 30 seconds. The longer you count, the more accurate.
BPM guide by tempo marking & genre
| Grave | –40 | solemn, very slow |
|---|---|---|
| Largo | 40–60 | broad, slow |
| Larghetto | 60–66 | a little faster than largo |
| Adagio | 66–76 | slow and relaxed |
| Andante | 76–108 | at a walking pace |
| Moderato | 108–120 | at a moderate pace |
| Allegro | 120–156 | fast and lively |
| Vivace | 156–176 | lively and fast |
| Presto | 176–200 | very fast |
| Prestissimo | 200+ | extremely fast |
| Ballad | 60–80 | |
|---|---|---|
| Hip-hop (boom bap) | 85–100 | |
| Reggaeton | 88–100 | |
| Rock / pop | 100–140 | |
| House | 118–130 | |
| Techno | 125–140 | |
| Trance | 130–140 | |
| Dubstep | 138–142 | Sounds like about 70 in half-time |
| Trap | 130–170 | Sounds like 65–85 in half-time |
| Eurobeat | 150–160 | |
| Hardstyle | 145–155 | |
| Drum & bass | 165–178 | Often 174 |
| Fast anime songs & Vocaloid tracks | 160–200 |
The mapping between tempo markings and BPM varies across method books and metronomes. These are guidelines divided so they don’t overlap.
The URL contains only the BPM and the open tab. Tap records and sounds are never sent anywhere.
ABOUT
About BPM Tap Tempo & Delay Time Calculator | Measure a Song’s BPM and Convert to ms, Hz, Frames & Bar Lengths
BPM Tap Tempo & Delay Time Calculator finds a song’s tempo (BPM) and converts it into the numbers used in DTM, bands, DJing, and video editing. Tap the screen or the space bar in rhythm while the song plays, and it fits a straight line to your tap times to get the BPM, showing an error estimate (±), tap deviation (ms), the BPM of the last 8 taps, and half-time and double-time candidates. You can use that BPM directly in a table of whole-note to 64th-note lengths in straight, dotted, and triplet (milliseconds, Hz, video frames, and samples), tempo-synced reverb pre-delay and decay, bar counts and song length, BPM from a loop’s length, and calculations of playback speed, pitch-fader %, and semitone change. At BPM 120 a dotted-eighth delay is 375 ms, and at BPM 128 it’s 351.56 ms.
How to use BPM Tap Tempo & Delay Time Calculator | Measure a Song’s BPM and Convert to ms, Hz, Frames & Bar Lengths
- 1While the song plays, press the big tap area at a steady interval on the kick, snare, or handclaps (on a computer, you can also use the space bar or Enter)
- 2The BPM appears from the 4th tap and is also copied into the BPM field above. Keep tapping 8–16 times until the “error estimate” is ±1 or less
- 3Press ▶ in “Check with a metronome” to layer it over the song, and if the click drifts, correct the BPM with −0.1 / +0.1
- 4If the song feels twice or half as fast, press ½ (half-time) or ×2 (double-time)
- 5In the “Delay & notes” tab, see delay times (ms) such as dotted eighths, LFO Hz, and video frame counts, and press a number to copy it
- 6Check bar counts and song length, and BPM from a loop’s length, in the “Song length & bars” tab, and the BPM when changing playback speed or semitones in the “Speed & semitones” tab
Great for
- Find the BPM of a favorite song or one you want to learn by ear by tapping along
- Get the dotted-eighth delay time in ms to sync a guitar delay to the song’s tempo
- Calculate delay, reverb pre-delay, and LFO rates for DAW plugins from the BPM
- Find how many frames a beat or bar is to line up cuts when editing MADs, music videos, or short videos
- Find how long a 64-bar song at BPM 120 is, or how many bars a 3-minute song needs
- Get the BPM from the length (seconds or samples) of a loop in a sample pack
- When beatmatching as a DJ, find how much to move the pitch fader and how many semitones the key changes
- Find the BPM when slowing a song to 0.8× or 0.9× speed for practice
Good to know
- BPM is calculated as “quarter notes per minute (quarter note = 1 beat)”, the same as tempo sync in DAWs and effects.
- The tapped BPM fits a straight line to all tap times, not just the interval between the first and last tap, so slightly early or late taps in between are averaged out. If you pause for 2.5 seconds, or an interval is more than double or less than half the previous one, it’s treated as a miscount and measurement restarts.
- Touch input on browsers and phone screens has a delay of a few to tens of milliseconds, but it’s nearly the same each time, so it barely affects the BPM (intervals).
- Dotted notes are 1.5 times the original length, and triplets are 2/3. Hz is the frequency that “cycles once in that length” (1000 ÷ ms), usable as the rate for LFO, tremolo, and auto-pan.
- Reverb guides split pre-delay + decay to fit exactly 2 bars, 1 bar, a half note, or a quarter note. Plugins define decay differently, so fine-tune by ear.
- The key change in “Speed & semitones” is for playback where pitch changes along with speed (varispeed), as with records, tape, or samplers. With pitch-preserving playback like DAW time-stretching or video sites’ playback speed, the key doesn’t change.
- Tap records and sounds are handled only in the browser and not sent to a server. Settings are saved in this browser (localStorage).
Questions this tool answers
Use BPM Tap Tempo & Delay Time Calculator | Measure a Song’s BPM and Convert to ms, Hz, Frames & Bar Lengths for searches like these:
- How to find a song’s BPM by tapping
- I want to calculate the dotted-eighth delay time in ms
- The formula for converting BPM to ms and Hz
- A guide to syncing reverb pre-delay to the BPM
- Frame counts for video cuts synced to the BPM
- I want to calculate song length from BPM and bar count
- I want to find the BPM from a loop’s length
- Playback speed and semitone change when changing BPM
FAQ
- How do I find a song’s BPM?
- While the song plays, press this tool’s tap area (the space bar on a computer) at a steady interval in rhythm. The BPM appears from the 4th tap, and after about 8–16 taps the error estimate drops to ±1 or less. Finally, play the metronome over the song; if it doesn’t drift, the BPM is right.
- What’s the dotted-eighth delay time in ms?
- Calculate 60000 ÷ BPM × 0.75 (3/4 of a quarter note). At BPM 120 it’s 375 ms, at BPM 128 it’s 351.56 ms, and at BPM 100 it’s 450 ms. In this tool’s “Delay & notes” tab, the dotted eighth for the current BPM is highlighted in yellow.
- What’s the formula for converting BPM to ms (milliseconds)?
- One quarter-note beat is 60000 ÷ BPM (ms). An eighth note is half of that, a sixteenth is 1/4, a half note is 2×, and a whole note (one bar of 4/4) is 4×. For dotted notes multiply by 1.5, and for triplets by 2/3. For example, a quarter note at BPM 120 is 500 ms, and an eighth-note triplet is 166.67 ms.
- How many seconds is one bar at BPM 120? How many bars is a 3-minute song?
- In 4/4, one bar is 60 ÷ BPM × 4 seconds, so 2 seconds at BPM 120. 3 minutes (180 seconds) is 90 bars, and 64 bars is 2 minutes 8 seconds. The “Song length & bars” tab can also calculate in time signatures like 3/4, 6/8, and 7/8.
- How many frames apart should I cut to sync a video to the BPM?
- Frames per beat are 60 ÷ BPM × frame rate. At 30 fps that’s 15 frames at BPM 120 and 14.06 frames at BPM 128. When it’s not a whole number, it’s best to realign at longer intervals such as “every bar (4 beats)” so drift doesn’t build up. Set the unit to “Video frames” in the “Delay & notes” tab to list frame counts for each note.
- How many semitones does the pitch (key) change when I change the BPM?
- For playback where pitch changes too, it changes by 12 × log2(new BPM ÷ original BPM) semitones. For example, raising a BPM 120 song to 128 makes it 1.0667× (+6.67%) faster, about +1.12 semitones. Raising by one semitone takes about 5.95% faster, and 1.25× speed is about +3.86 semitones.
- My tapped BPM comes out double or half
- Half-time dubstep and trap, and fast songs, can feel like double or half the BPM depending on how you listen. Check the genre guide on this page (“BPM guide by tempo marking & genre”) and correct it with the ½ (half-time) or ×2 (double-time) button.
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