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DELAY & REVERB
TIME CALCULATOR
Set your tempo, tap any value to copy it. Every note length in straight, dotted, and triplet, in ms and Hz, plus reverb times that make the space breathe with the song. The timing sheet I keep open on every mix.
01
Set the tempo
Type the BPM, pick a genre preset, or tap along with the Tap button (or the T key).
02
Tap a value
Any number copies instantly. The timeline shows exactly where those echoes land.
03
Paste it in
Into your delay's time control, or your reverb's pre-delay and decay.
Tempo
1 beat = 468.75 ms · 1 bar = 1875 ms
Delay times
| Note | Straight | Dotted | Triplet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/1 | |||
| 1/2 | |||
| 1/4 | |||
| 1/8 | |||
| 1/16 | |||
| 1/32 | |||
| 1/64 |
Selected · 1/8 dotted
351.56ms
Echoes over 1 bar
5 echoes before the bar repeats. The dotted eighth lands between the beats, which is why it fills space without cluttering the groove.
Reverb times
128 bpm
| Space | Pre-delay | Decay | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
Hall Big, cinematic tails; ballads, breakdowns | |||
Large room Lush vocals, pads, snares that bloom | |||
Small room Drums, tight vocals, groove-safe space | |||
Tight ambience Up-tempo parts; depth without wash |
All values in ms. If your reverb's decay control is in seconds, divide by 1,000 (e.g. 1,875 ms = 1.88 s).
✓
THE FORMULA
1 beat (quarter note) = 60,000 ÷ BPM
dotted = note × 1.5 · triplet = note × ⅔
Hz = 1,000 ÷ ms
At 120 BPM a beat is 500 ms, so an eighth is 250 ms, a dotted eighth 375 ms, and an eighth triplet 166.67 ms. That's all the calculator does, for every note value at once, so you never do the division mid-session.
DELAY TIMES AT COMMON TEMPOS
The five delay values producers reach for most, in milliseconds.
| BPM | 1/4 | 1/8 | 1/8 dotted | 1/8 triplet | 1/16 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 750 | 375 | 562.5 | 250 | 187.5 |
| 90 | 666.67 | 333.33 | 500 | 222.22 | 166.67 |
| 100 | 600 | 300 | 450 | 200 | 150 |
| 110 | 545.45 | 272.73 | 409.09 | 181.82 | 136.36 |
| 120 | 500 | 250 | 375 | 166.67 | 125 |
| 124 | 483.87 | 241.94 | 362.9 | 161.29 | 120.97 |
| 128 | 468.75 | 234.38 | 351.56 | 156.25 | 117.19 |
| 140 | 428.57 | 214.29 | 321.43 | 142.86 | 107.14 |
| 150 | 400 | 200 | 300 | 133.33 | 100 |
| 160 | 375 | 187.5 | 281.25 | 125 | 93.75 |
| 174 | 344.83 | 172.41 | 258.62 | 114.94 | 86.21 |
e.g. 128 BPM: beat = 468.75 ms, dotted eighth = 351.56 ms.
USING DELAY & REVERB WELL
Put them on sends, not inserts. The dry sound stays in front and the space lives behind it. High-pass the returns (around 200 to 300 Hz) so echoes and tails never muddy the low end.
Tempo-synced isn't always better. A slapback of 80 to 120 ms on a vocal, or a delay nudged a few ms late, can feel more natural than a perfect grid value. Use the numbers as a starting point, then trust your ears.
Automate the throws. Pushing the delay send up on the last word of a line is the move that makes vocals sound produced. It's the space stage of a vocal chain, and the full process is in how to mix vocals. Width from delays and reverbs should still survive a mono check.
The whole chain, not just the timing
Settings from real releases
The Ultimate Master Chains are my exact finishing settings, documented stage by stage. From $17, lifetime.
DELAY & REVERB QUESTIONS, ANSWERED
How do I calculate delay time from BPM?
+
Divide 60,000 by the BPM to get one beat (a quarter note) in milliseconds. At 120 BPM that's 500 ms. Halve it for an eighth note (250 ms), halve again for a sixteenth (125 ms). For a dotted note multiply by 1.5; for a triplet multiply by 2/3.
What is the best delay time for vocals?
+
The most common choices are a dotted eighth (fills the space between beats), a straight quarter (clear, rhythmic repeats), or a short slapback of 80 to 120 ms that isn't tempo-synced at all. Put the delay on a send, high-pass the delay return, and automate throws into the ends of phrases.
What is a dotted eighth delay?
+
An echo 1.5 times as long as an eighth note, which equals three sixteenths. Because it lands between the beats, its repeats fill the gaps in the groove instead of doubling it. It's the signature delay of countless guitar parts, vocal throws, and synth leads.
Should I use ms or sync my delay to the host?
+
If your delay plugin has tempo sync, use it and pick the note value there. Use milliseconds when a plugin or hardware unit can't sync, when you want to nudge the time slightly off-grid for a looser feel, or for pre-delay on a reverb, which is almost always set in ms.
How do I set reverb pre-delay to the tempo?
+
Pick a small note value, usually a 1/64 or 1/128 note, and use its length in ms as the pre-delay. The calculator's reverb table does this for four room sizes. The gap keeps the dry sound clear and in front, then the reverb blooms behind it in time with the song.
What does tempo-synced reverb decay do?
+
It sets the reverb tail so that pre-delay plus decay equals a musical length (a bar, a half note, a beat). The tail finishes as the next phrase starts, so the space breathes with the song instead of smearing over the next hit.
What are the Hz values for?
+
Hz is the same timing as a rate: repeats per second. Use it to sync LFOs, tremolo, auto-pan, chorus rates, and filter wobbles to the track when a plugin asks for a rate instead of a note value.
What does the samples value mean?
+
It's the delay length counted in audio samples at 44.1 or 48 kHz. Some delays, sample editors, and sidechain or alignment tools take a sample count for perfectly exact timing.
How do I find the BPM of a song?
+
Tap the big Tap button (or press T on a keyboard) along with the beat for a few bars. The calculator averages your last eight taps and updates every value live. For an exact figure, check the project tempo in your DAW or the track's metadata.
Keep going
Written by
CHARLIE CROWN
Founder of Born Creative Audio. Independent artist and engineer: 50M+ streams, 100% owned, never signed a record deal. Also founder of Born Creative Records. Work-for-hire remixes for Sony, Ultra, and Dim Mak. FabFilter featured artist; endorsed by iZotope, Sonarworks, and McDSP. Everything on this site comes from running a real independent music business, not theory.