BPM to MS Calculator

One tempo in, every straight, dotted and triplet note out in milliseconds and hertz, with reverb pre-delay and loop lengths. Tap the tempo, click to copy.

Updated October 13, 2026 · By Niraj Kumar

Tempo

BPM

↑ ↓ nudge by 1, with Shift by 0.1. One beat = 500 ms.

Delay times · click to copy

Note	Straight	Dotted	Triplet
2 bars
1/1 (bar)
1/2
1/4
1/8
1/16
1/32
1/64

Reverb pre-delay & decay

Hall1/64 + tail to 2 bars

Pre-delay
Decay
Total

Large room1/128 + tail to 1 bar

Pre-delay
Decay
Total

Small room1/256 + tail to 1/2

Pre-delay
Decay
Total

Tight ambience1/512 + tail to 1/4

Pre-delay
Decay
Total

A starting point: shorten the decay until the tail stops masking the next phrase.

Bar & sample length

Time signature

Bars

Sample rate

Milliseconds

Seconds

Samples

Delay time → BPM

Delay time

Heard as

Feel

120 BPM

How do you convert BPM to milliseconds?

Divide 60,000 by the tempo to get one beat in milliseconds: at 120 BPM a quarter note is 500 ms. Halve it for each shorter note, multiply by 1.5 for a dotted note and by 2/3 for a triplet, so a dotted eighth is 375 ms and a sixteenth triplet 83.33 ms.

A minute holds 60,000 milliseconds, so one beat at a given tempo lasts 60,000 divided by the BPM. Every other note value is a multiple of that beat. A dot adds half the note again, and a triplet squeezes three notes into the space of two. An LFO or clock that repeats once per note runs at 1000 divided by its length in milliseconds.

quarter note (ms) = 60 000 ÷ BPM;  note = quarter × q;
dotted = note × 1.5;  triplet = note × 2/3;  rate (Hz) = 1000 ÷ ms;
bar = quarter × beats × 4 ÷ unit;  samples = seconds × sample rate

BPM: Beats per minute, counted in quarter notes
q: The note's length in quarter notes: 1/8 is 0.5, 1/16 is 0.25, a 4/4 bar is 4
dotted: One and a half times the plain note
triplet: Two thirds of the plain note: three in the space of two
Hz: Cycles per second, what an LFO rate or clock divider is set to
pre-delay: The silence between the dry sound and the start of the reverb

Delay times and LFO rates at 120 BPM
Note	Straight (ms)	Dotted (ms)	Triplet (ms)	Straight (Hz)
2 bars	4,000	6,000	2,666.67	0.25
1/1 (bar)	2,000	3,000	1,333.33	0.5
1/2	1,000	1,500	666.67	1
1/4	500	750	333.33	2
1/8	250	375	166.67	4
1/16	125	187.5	83.33	8
1/32	62.5	93.75	41.67	16
1/64	31.25	46.88	20.83	32

Worked example

A pop track at 120 BPM, the default tempo in most DAWs, with an outboard delay and a synth LFO to set by hand.

1Quarter note: 60,000 ÷ 120 = 500 ms
2Eighth note: 500 ÷ 2 = 250 ms; dotted: 250 × 1.5 = 375 ms
3Sixteenth triplet: 125 × 2/3 = 83.33 ms
4LFO once per beat: 1000 ÷ 500 = 2 Hz
5Hall reverb: pre-delay 1/64 = 31.25 ms, decay 3,968.75 ms to end on 2 bars

At 120 BPM: 500 ms quarter, 375 ms dotted eighth, 83.33 ms sixteenth triplet, 2 Hz per beat.

Frequently asked questions

What is the formula for delay time from BPM?

Delay time in ms = 60,000 ÷ BPM × note length in beats. A quarter note is one beat, an eighth half a beat, a sixteenth a quarter of one. Multiply by 1.5 for dotted and by 2/3 for triplet. At 100 BPM a quarter is 600 ms, a dotted eighth 450 ms and an eighth triplet 200 ms.

How do I convert milliseconds back to BPM?

Divide 60,000 by the milliseconds, then multiply by the note's length in beats. A 500 ms quarter-note delay means 120 BPM; a 375 ms delay heard as a dotted eighth (0.75 beats) also means 120 BPM. The reverse panel in the calculator does this for any note and feel, for reading back a tapped pedal.

Why does a dotted eighth delay sound so good?

A dotted eighth is three sixteenths long, so its repeats land between the beats and fill the gaps in a straight eighth-note part rather than doubling it. That is the rhythmic delay heard on countless guitar parts. At 120 BPM it is 375 ms, three quarters of a beat. Mix it low with a few repeats so it reads as rhythm rather than echo.

Should I round delay times to whole milliseconds?

On most hardware you have to, and it rarely matters: rounding 83.33 ms to 83 ms drifts by a third of a millisecond a repeat, which takes dozens of repeats to become audible. If a unit accepts tenths, use them for short triplet values at fast tempos, where the rounding is a larger share of the note.

Does this work for songs in 3/4 or 6/8?

Yes. Note values are the same in any time signature, because BPM counts quarter notes. Only the length of a bar changes: a 3/4 bar is three quarter notes and a 6/8 bar is three. Set the time signature in the bar length panel to get loop lengths in your meter. In 6/8, a DAW may count the dotted quarter as the beat; if so, multiply its BPM by 1.5 first.