BPM Delay Calculator
Tempo-synced delay is one note of arithmetic: a quarter-note delay lasts 60,000 ÷ BPM milliseconds, and every other subdivision is a multiple of it. Set a plugin's time manually to those milliseconds and echoes land exactly between the notes - the dotted eighth that defines U2-style edge-of-chaos ambience, the triplet that swings, the one-bar wash that turns a vocal into a stadium. This calculator shows the whole family at once, live, from one field.
It also answers the questions the delay table doesn't: how long a bar lasts (for reverb tails and loop lengths), and the modulation rate in Hz producers need when a plugin's LFO syncs by frequency instead of tempo - one LFO cycle per bar at your tempo, to three decimals. Your last tempo is remembered for the session, and the share link carries the BPM.
How to use
- Enter your track's BPM.
- Read the delay time you need - quarter for on-beat echoes, dotted 1/8 for the classic push.
- Use the bar length for reverb tail decisions and the Hz value for LFO sync.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate delay time from BPM?
Quarter note in ms = 60,000 ÷ BPM. At 120 BPM that's 500 ms; a dotted eighth is 1.5× = 750 ms; an eighth triplet is ⅔ = 333 ms. Every subdivision is just a fraction or multiple of the quarter - the calculator lays them out so you can dial a number in instead of trusting tap tempo.
Why do producers love dotted eighth delays?
Because echoes fall between the subdivisions, creating a rhythm that's locked to the track but sounds like it's floating - the Edge's guitar sound and half of ambient techno are dotted-eighth ping-pong delays. It reads as complexity while being mathematically perfectly in time.
What about reverb times - how long should a tail be?
A workable rule: tail roughly equal to one bar (or one phrase) so washes resolve on the downbeat; for vocals, keep predelay at 10-30 ms so the dry signal stays in front, and use the bar-length stat to decide whether the tail fits the groove or blurs it. Ballads tolerate longer; anything uptight and fast wants shorter.
My plugin syncs by Hz, not tempo - what value do I use?
Hz = BPM ÷ 60 ÷ (beats per cycle). One LFO cycle per bar of 4/4 is BPM ÷ 240 - at 120 BPM, 0.5 Hz. The calculator shows that figure to three decimals, which matters because tremolo and auto-pan drift becomes audible when the cycle slips even a few hundredths against the grid.