Free tool

Tempo to milliseconds. Delay and reverb times that land on the beat.

Hear it in the metronome

Delay times at 120 BPM (ms · LFO Hz)

NoteStraightDottedTriplet
1/10.5 Hz0.33 Hz0.75 Hz
1/21 Hz0.67 Hz1.5 Hz
1/42 Hz1.33 Hz3 Hz
1/84 Hz2.67 Hz6 Hz
1/168 Hz5.33 Hz12 Hz
1/3216 Hz10.67 Hz24 Hz
1/6432 Hz21.33 Hz48 Hz

Reverb starting points at 120 BPM (ms)

TailPre-delay (1/64)DecayTotal
Tight (1/4 note)32 Hz2.13 Hz500
Short (1/2 note)32 Hz1.03 Hz1000
Medium (1 bar)32 Hz0.51 Hz2000
Long (2 bars)32 Hz0.25 Hz4000

Starting points, not rules. For a tighter pre-delay use a 1/128 note: 15.63 ms. Reverbs measure decay differently (RT60 or their own scale), so set it, then listen.

How it works

01

Enter the tempo

Type the song's BPM (20–400) or tap it in. A ?bpm= link opens the calculator at that tempo.

02

Read the note values

Every note from a whole bar to a 1/64, straight, dotted and triplet, in milliseconds, with the matching rate in hertz for LFOs and tremolo.

03

Copy into your plugin

Click a number to copy it. Use it as a delay time, a compressor release, or the decay of a reverb so its tail clears before the next hit.

Questions

How do I work out delay time from BPM?
Divide 60,000 by the BPM to get one beat (a quarter note) in milliseconds. At 120 BPM that is 500 ms; an eighth is half that, 250 ms, and a whole note four times it, 2,000 ms.
What are dotted and triplet delays?
A dotted note lasts one and a half times as long as the straight one (a dotted eighth at 120 BPM is 375 ms), which gives the rolling echo heard on many guitar parts. A triplet is two-thirds as long, fitting three in the space of two.
How should I set reverb pre-delay and decay?
These are starting points, not rules. A pre-delay of a 1/64 or 1/128 note keeps the dry sound clear of the reverb; setting the decay so pre-delay plus decay equals a note value makes the tail end in time with the song. Then trust your ears.
What is the Hz column?
How many times per second something repeats at that note length: the rate to give an LFO, tremolo or auto-pan so it moves in time. A quarter at 120 BPM is 2 Hz.
Does it assume 4/4?
Note values are fractions of a 4/4 bar, as plugins count them: a quarter note is one beat. In other meters the note lengths are the same; only the bar rows in the reverb table assume four beats.

More free tools

Timed by hand.
Or synced for you.

The SoundGen studio's delays and LFOs sync to the project tempo, and change with it, so you never retype a number.

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