BPM to Delay Time Calculator

Enter your tempo (or tap it out) to get tempo-synced delay and reverb times in milliseconds for every note division, plus the matching LFO rate in Hz. Dotted = ×1.5, triplet = ×⅔.

Prefer a printable chart? See the BPM-to-delay-time reference table.

How it works

Every tempo-synced time comes from one number: the length of a quarter note in milliseconds.

quarter note (ms) = 60000 / BPM

eighth   = quarter / 2        sixteenth = quarter / 4
dotted   = value × 1.5         triplet   = value × 2/3
LFO rate (Hz) = 1000 / delay time (ms)

60,000 is simply milliseconds per minute. Everything else is division, and the dotted and triplet modifiers apply to whichever value you started from.

Worked example

At 120 BPM:

• Quarter note = 60000 / 120 = 500 ms
• Eighth = 250 ms · sixteenth = 125 ms
• Dotted eighth = 250 × 1.5 = 375 ms
• Triplet eighth = 250 × 2/3 = 167 ms
• An LFO synced to eighths = 1000 / 250 = 4 Hz

In practice

• Dotted eighth is the classic rhythmic-delay setting — it lands between the beats and creates the galloping pattern associated with The Edge. It is the single most useful number on this page.
• Slapback sits at roughly 80–120 ms and is usually not tempo-synced; it is short enough to read as an effect rather than a repeat.
• Reverb pre-delay set to a sixteenth or thirty-second note keeps the reverb out of the way of the transient, which preserves clarity on vocals and snares.
• Tremolo and filter LFOs want the Hz column. Many plugins take Hz rather than note values, and this is the conversion.
• Feedback interacts with tempo. A long delay with high feedback at a fast tempo turns into a wash quickly — shorten the time or drop the feedback.

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