How do you convert BPM to milliseconds?

A quarter note (one beat) in milliseconds is 60000 divided by the BPM. At 120 BPM that is 500 ms. For other note values, multiply by 4 divided by the note's denominator: an eighth note at 120 BPM is 250 ms, a dotted eighth is 375 ms, and a triplet eighth is about 166.7 ms.

What delay time should I use at 120 BPM?

At 120 BPM a quarter-note delay is 500 ms, an eighth-note delay is 250 ms, and the popular dotted-eighth delay is 375 ms.

Delay & Reverb Time Calculator — BPM to ms

How to set a tempo-synced delay

A delay sounds musical when its repeats land on the grid. To do that, set the delay time to a note value at your song's tempo. The quarter note (one beat) is 60000 ÷ BPM milliseconds — 500 ms at 120 BPM. Every other note is a fraction of that: an eighth-note delay is half a beat (250 ms at 120), a sixteenth a quarter of a beat, and so on.

Dotted vs triplet delays

A dotted note is 1.5× longer than the plain note — the famous dotted-eighth delay (375 ms at 120 BPM) is the shimmering off-grid repeat behind countless guitar and pop productions. A triplet note is ⅔ of the plain note (a triplet eighth ≈ 166.7 ms at 120), giving a rolling, galloping echo. Both are in the table above for every note value.

Reverb times & LFO sync

The same numbers set tempo-synced reverb: match the reverb's pre-delay to a sixteenth or eighth, and tune the decay so the tail fades around a beat or two — use the quarter and half-note rows as anchors. Switch the table to Hz to sync an LFO, tremolo or auto-filter: it's just 1000 ÷ ms, so an eighth note at 120 BPM (250 ms) is 4 Hz.

Find your BPM

Don't know the tempo? Tap it out on our Tap Tempo tool — it sends the BPM straight here. Or practise against the number in the online metronome, the only one with named human feels.

Delay times by tempo

Jump to a ready-made delay-time chart for a common BPM: 60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 110, 120, 128, 130, 140, 150, 160, 170, 174 and 180 BPM.