Tap Tempo — Find the BPM by Tapping
Tap the button (or press the spacebar) in time with any track and read off its tempo in BPM. It averages your taps for a stable reading and resets after a pause.
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BPM
Got the tempo? Turn it into effect times with the delay-time calculator, or practise to it on the metronome.
How it works
Tap tempo measures the interval between taps and converts the average to beats per minute.
BPM = 60000 / average interval between taps (ms)Averaging several taps rather than using the last two is what makes it stable — a single unsteady tap barely moves the result.
Worked example
- Taps 500 ms apart = 60000 / 500 = 120 BPM
- Taps 600 ms apart = 100 BPM
- Taps 375 ms apart = 160 BPM
In practice
- Tap at least four to eight beats. Two taps gives you a number; eight gives you the right number.
- Tap quarter notes, not whatever subdivision the track emphasises — it is easy to tap eighths on a busy hi-hat pattern and land on double the real tempo.
- Half or double time. If the result seems wrong, it is usually out by exactly 2×. Drum and bass at 174 BPM is frequently tapped as 87.
- Live drums drift. A tempo tapped from a human performance is an average, not a grid — expect it to wander across a track.