How are dotted and triplet times calculated?

Start from the straight note value in milliseconds, then multiply. A dotted note adds half its own length again, so the time is ×1.5 — a dotted eighth is one and a half eighths. A triplet squeezes three notes into the space of two, so each one is ×2/3 of the straight value. Example at 120 BPM: a straight eighth is 250 ms, the dotted eighth is 250 × 1.5 = 375 ms, and the eighth triplet is 250 × 2/3 = 166.67 ms. The table applies both factors to every row, so you never have to remember which way the multiplier goes.

Why is the dotted-eighth delay so popular?

A dotted-eighth delay repeats at three sixteenths after the original note, which lands it off the main beat and interlocks with a straight eighth-note part. That syncopation is what makes a single guitar or synth line feel like a rolling, galloping pattern — it is the sound most people associate with The Edge's playing on U2 records, and it shows up constantly in dance and pop production. Because it is tempo-synced rather than a round number of milliseconds, it stays musical when the song speeds up or slows down.

Should I type the ms value or the Hz value into my plugin?

It depends on what the plugin is asking for. A delay or echo unit wants a time, so use the milliseconds column. An LFO, tremolo, auto-pan, or any modulation rate is a frequency, so flip to the Hz column — that is the number of cycles per second the table gives you (1000 divided by the ms time). If your plugin already has a tempo-sync button and note-value menu, you may not need a number at all; this tool is for the many plugins that only accept a raw ms or Hz value.

Is two decimal places accurate enough for mixing?

Yes. Two decimals resolve to a hundredth of a millisecond, which is far finer than any delay you can hear as a separate event (the ear stops separating echoes below roughly 30–50 ms and reads them as tone or width). Most DAWs and plugins round delay time to whole milliseconds or one decimal internally anyway, so the extra digit here is just headroom. The values come straight from 60000 / BPM with no rounding until display, so what you read is the exact tempo-locked time, not an approximation.

Sync a delay to a 128 BPM house track in Ableton

You are mixing a house track at 128 BPM and want a clean dotted-eighth delay on the lead synth, but Ableton's Delay is in free-time mode for this send. Type 128 into the calculator, read the dotted-eighth time (351.56 ms), and dial it in. It interlocks with the straight eighth hats and gives the lead that rolling pull without smearing the groove. Switch the unit to Hz if you also want to set the delay's filter LFO to the same note value.

Set reverb pre-delay in Logic Pro so vocals stay clear

A lead vocal at 90 BPM is getting swallowed by a long hall reverb. You want a pre-delay that keeps the dry consonants intact and lets the tail bloom on the off-beat. The calculator shows a 16th note at 90 BPM is 166.67 ms and a 32nd is 83.33 ms — you set Logic's ChromaVerb pre-delay to 83 ms, and suddenly the words punch through while the reverb still breathes in time with the song.

Match an FL Studio LFO to the tempo for a wobble bass

You are building a wobble bass in FL Studio and want the filter LFO to move in quarter-note triplets, but the LFO only accepts a rate in Hz. Enter the project tempo, flip the toggle to Hz, and read the quarter-triplet frequency straight off the table — type that into the LFO rate and the wobble locks to the grid instead of drifting.

Print a delay cheat-sheet for a live looping rig

Your looping setup runs at a fixed 95 BPM and you want a printed card taped to the pedalboard with the slapback, eighth, and dotted-eighth times so you can re-set the delay between songs without a screen. Enter 95, hit copy, and paste the whole grid into your notes. The two-decimal values are precise enough that the loop seams stay tight all night.

Teach a production student how note values map to time

You are showing a beginner why "tempo-synced" delays sound musical. Pull up the table at 120 BPM, point out that a quarter note is exactly 500 ms (half a second, since 120 beats fill a minute), then halve it down the rows — 250, 125, 62.5 — so the doubling pattern is obvious. The dotted and triplet columns make the ×1.5 and ×2/3 relationships concrete instead of abstract.

Tempo Delay Calculator — BPM to delay time in ms and Hz

Turn any BPM into a full delay-time table — milliseconds and Hz for every note value, plus dotted and triplet. Built for mixing and producing.

Runs locally
Category Calculator
Best for Getting a realistic range before a purchase, plan, workout, or schedule decision.

Tempo (BPM)

Show

Quarter note (1 beat): 500.00 ms · 2.00 Hz

Note	Normal	Dotted (×1.5)	Triplet (×⅔)
Whole (1/1)	2000.00 ms	3000.00 ms	1333.33 ms
Half (1/2)	1000.00 ms	1500.00 ms	666.67 ms
Quarter (1/4)	500.00 ms	750.00 ms	333.33 ms
Eighth (1/8)	250.00 ms	375.00 ms	166.67 ms
Sixteenth (1/16)	125.00 ms	187.50 ms	83.33 ms
32nd (1/32)	62.50 ms	93.75 ms	41.67 ms

Common starting points

Slapback echo
A short, single-repeat delay around an eighth-note triplet to a sixteenth — tight enough to thicken vocals or guitar without a distinct echo.
Dotted-eighth delay
The classic rhythmic delay (think U2 / The Edge). It lands off the beat and weaves with straight eighths for a galloping feel.
Reverb pre-delay
A 1/32 to 1/16 gap before the reverb tail keeps the dry signal clear and lets the room bloom in time with the groove.

What this tool does

Type your song's tempo and get the whole delay-time grid at once, so your delay, echo, LFO, or reverb pre-delay locks to the groove instead of floating off the grid. The math behind it is one division — milliseconds per beat = 60000 / BPM — but doing it by hand for every note length, then again for the dotted (×1.5) and triplet (×2/3) variants, is exactly where a typo turns a tight slapback into a sloppy flam. This builds all of it for you: whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, and 32nd notes, each in straight, dotted, and triplet form, to two decimal places. Flip the unit toggle and every cell switches from milliseconds to Hertz (1000 / ms), which is what you type when a plugin asks for an LFO rate or a tremolo speed instead of a delay time. At 120 BPM a quarter note is 500.00 ms, a dotted-eighth is 375.00 ms (the classic rhythmic delay), and an eighth triplet is 166.67 ms. Everything runs in your browser, the BPM rides in the shareable URL so a link reproduces the exact table, and one click copies the whole grid as plain text to drop into session notes.

Tool details

Input: Numbers; The page exposes text boxes, numeric controls, file pickers, or structured inputs depending on the tool.
Output: Live result + Copy; The result area focuses on usable output, with copy, download, or preview actions when supported.
Privacy: Browser-side processing; The main tool logic does not call an external API, so inputs normally stay in the current tab.
Save / share: Shareable URL state; Key settings are encoded in the URL so another person can reopen the same setup.
Performance budget: Initial JS <= 9 KB; No WASM budget is declared, keeping the tool quick to open on mobile.
Best fit: Calculator · Content Creator; Category and role tags drive related tools, internal links, and quick fit checks.

How to use

1. Input

Paste or drop your content into the tool panel.
2. Process

Click the button. All processing is local in your browser.
3. Copy / Download

Copy the result or download to disk in one click.

How Tempo Delay Calculator fits into your work

Use it for fast estimates, comparisons, and planning numbers before you make the final call.

Calculation jobs

Getting a realistic range before a purchase, plan, workout, or schedule decision.
Comparing scenarios by changing one input at a time.
Turning rough assumptions into a number you can discuss.

Calculation checks

Double-check units, dates, rates, and rounding assumptions.
Treat health, finance, tax, and legal outputs as planning aids, not professional advice.
Save the inputs that produced an important result so you can reproduce it later.

Good next steps

These links move the current task into a more complete workflow.

Real-world use cases

Sync a delay to a 128 BPM house track in Ableton
You are mixing a house track at 128 BPM and want a clean dotted-eighth delay on the lead synth, but Ableton's Delay is in free-time mode for this send. Type 128 into the calculator, read the dotted-eighth time (351.56 ms), and dial it in. It interlocks with the straight eighth hats and gives the lead that rolling pull without smearing the groove. Switch the unit to Hz if you also want to set the delay's filter LFO to the same note value.
Set reverb pre-delay in Logic Pro so vocals stay clear
A lead vocal at 90 BPM is getting swallowed by a long hall reverb. You want a pre-delay that keeps the dry consonants intact and lets the tail bloom on the off-beat. The calculator shows a 16th note at 90 BPM is 166.67 ms and a 32nd is 83.33 ms — you set Logic's ChromaVerb pre-delay to 83 ms, and suddenly the words punch through while the reverb still breathes in time with the song.
Match an FL Studio LFO to the tempo for a wobble bass
You are building a wobble bass in FL Studio and want the filter LFO to move in quarter-note triplets, but the LFO only accepts a rate in Hz. Enter the project tempo, flip the toggle to Hz, and read the quarter-triplet frequency straight off the table — type that into the LFO rate and the wobble locks to the grid instead of drifting.
Print a delay cheat-sheet for a live looping rig
Your looping setup runs at a fixed 95 BPM and you want a printed card taped to the pedalboard with the slapback, eighth, and dotted-eighth times so you can re-set the delay between songs without a screen. Enter 95, hit copy, and paste the whole grid into your notes. The two-decimal values are precise enough that the loop seams stay tight all night.
Teach a production student how note values map to time
You are showing a beginner why "tempo-synced" delays sound musical. Pull up the table at 120 BPM, point out that a quarter note is exactly 500 ms (half a second, since 120 beats fill a minute), then halve it down the rows — 250, 125, 62.5 — so the doubling pattern is obvious. The dotted and triplet columns make the ×1.5 and ×2/3 relationships concrete instead of abstract.

Common pitfalls

Multiplying the wrong way for triplets. A triplet is faster (×2/3, shorter time), not slower — three notes in the space of two. If your triplet delay comes out longer than the straight value, you flipped the fraction; the table always gives the correct shorter time.
Typing a delay time into an LFO rate field, or vice versa. A delay wants milliseconds; an LFO or tremolo wants Hz. They are reciprocals (Hz = 1000 / ms), so a 500 ms value is not "500" on an LFO — it is 2 Hz. Use the unit toggle to read the right column.
Forgetting that the time changes when the tempo does. A delay set to a fixed 375 ms only stays a dotted eighth at one BPM. If you change the project tempo, recompute — or use your plugin's tempo-sync mode so it tracks automatically.

Privacy

Every number here — milliseconds per beat, each note-value time, and the Hz conversion — is plain JavaScript that runs in your browser tab. Nothing about your tracks, tempos, or sessions is uploaded, logged, or sent to any server, and there is no external API call. The one thing to know: the shareable URL encodes your current BPM in the query string (e.g. ?bpm=128), so if you paste a share link somewhere the destination server's access log will record that tempo. A BPM is not sensitive, so this is harmless — but if you would rather not share it at all, use the copy button to grab the table as text instead of sharing the link.

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Tempo Delay Calculator — BPM to delay time in ms and Hz

Common starting points

What this tool does

Tool details

How to use

1. Input

2. Process

3. Copy / Download

How Tempo Delay Calculator fits into your work

Calculation jobs

Calculation checks

Good next steps

Real-world use cases

Sync a delay to a 128 BPM house track in Ableton

Set reverb pre-delay in Logic Pro so vocals stay clear

Match an FL Studio LFO to the tempo for a wobble bass

Print a delay cheat-sheet for a live looping rig

Teach a production student how note values map to time

Common pitfalls

Privacy

FAQ

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