How to find the BPM of a song or a groove
BPM means beats per minute: how many steady pulses fit into sixty seconds. It is the number DJs match when mixing, producers set in a DAW and drummers count off before a song.
This tool measures tempo three ways. You can tap along, let it listen through the microphone, or analyse an audio file. Everything runs in your browser and no audio is uploaded.
Using tap tempo
Tap the pad on every beat. The tempo appears after the second tap and sharpens with each one.
- Tap on the quarter-note pulse you would nod your head to, not on every subdivision.
- Eight to sixteen taps give a stable result. Tapping longer improves it only slowly.
- The tempo is fitted with a straight line through all tap times, so one early or late tap barely moves it.
- Pause for three seconds and the next tap starts a fresh measurement.
The steadiness score shows how even your taps were. Below 70 usually means the tempo reading is still settling.
How the song BPM detector works
The audio is reduced to an onset curve that spikes whenever a new note or drum hit begins. The detector then measures how strongly that curve repeats at every tempo between 40 and 220 BPM, and refines the best candidate to a tenth of a BPM.
Tempo is ambiguous by octaves: 70, 140 and 280 BPM can describe the same groove. The detector prefers the range where most music sits, and the Half and Double buttons let you switch to the feel you mean.
Turning BPM into milliseconds
One quarter note lasts 60000 divided by the BPM in milliseconds, so 120 BPM gives 500 ms. Dotted notes last one and a half times as long and triplets two thirds as long.
Set a delay or reverb pre-delay to the table values and the repeats will fall exactly on the beat.
Keep time with the Metronome, tune up first with the Tuner, or find the harmonic key of the same track with the Key Finder.