BPM to MS Calculator

Enter the song tempo to get delay times in milliseconds for straight, dotted, and triplet rhythms.

Tap at least twice

500.00 ms per beat

Delay times in milliseconds
Note valueStraight (ms)Dotted (ms)Triplet (ms)
Whole note2000.003000.001333.33
Half note1000.001500.00666.67
Quarter note500.00750.00333.33
Eighth note250.00375.00166.67
Sixteenth note125.00187.5083.33
Thirty-second note62.5093.7541.67

Set a delay pedal to the song

Choose the tempo in quarter-note beats per minute. Find the note value you want in the table and enter its millisecond time into your pedal or effect. The tap button estimates tempo from up to eight recent taps.

At 120 BPM, a quarter-note repeat takes 500 ms. An eighth note takes 250 ms; its dotted version lasts 375 ms. A triplet eighth lasts about 166.67 ms.

How the conversion works

There are 60,000 milliseconds in a minute, so one quarter-note beat lasts 60,000 ÷ BPM. Halve that time for an eighth note and halve it again for a sixteenth.

A dotted duration is one and a half times its straight value. A triplet duration is two-thirds of the corresponding straight note. The calculation is exact before display rounding.

Check what your tempo marking counts

This table assumes the BPM value counts quarter notes. In 6/8, a musician may count dotted-quarter beats instead. Convert that marking to quarter-note BPM before using this table, or the repeat spacing will differ from what you expect.

Delay time controls the gap between repeats. Feedback controls their persistence, and mix controls their level. This calculator does not set either of those parameters or compensate for audio-interface latency.