Delay & Reverb Times Calculator — BPM Sync
Enter your song's BPM and instantly get delay times in milliseconds for every common note value — whole, half, quarter, dotted, eighth, sixteenth and triplets — plus the reverb pre-delay sweet spot.
BPM
Milliseconds per beat — the most common delay tap setting
- 1
Seconds per beat
60 ÷ 120 = 0.5 - 2
Quarter note delay
(60 ÷ 120) × 1,000 = 500Milliseconds per beat — multiply by note multipliers to get other delay values
How does this calculator work?
Delay time in ms = 60 000 ÷ BPM for a quarter note; dotted eighth = ×0.75; triplet eighth = ÷3. At 120 BPM: quarter = 500 ms, dotted eighth = 375 ms (the reverb pre-delay sweet spot). Enter your BPM and read off every note value.
Formula
How this is calculated
A tempo-synced delay repeats the signal at an exact musical interval, locking the echoes to the song's beat. The base unit is a quarter note (one beat): 60 000 ÷ BPM milliseconds. All other note values are multiples: a half note doubles it, a dotted quarter is ×1.5, a dotted eighth is ×0.75 (three-sixteenths of a beat), and a triplet eighth is ×1/3. Entering the correct value into a delay pedal or DAW plugin makes echoes land rhythmically instead of fighting the groove.
Reverb pre-delay — the gap between the dry signal and the first room reflection — is most commonly set to a dotted eighth note. This gives the direct sound room to breathe before the reverb bloom, keeping the mix clear while keeping the tail rhythmically locked. Values from one sixteenth to one quarter note suit different reverb characters; shorter pre-delays (10–25 ms) give a more realistic room feel, longer ones (50–100 ms) create a dramatic, spacious tail.
The sample-count rows are useful when configuring delays in DAWs or vintage digital units that accept samples rather than milliseconds. At 48 kHz, multiply the 44.1 kHz count by 48/44.1 ≈ 1.088, or read the 48 kHz row directly.
Frequently asked questions
The dotted eighth (0.75 × quarter note) creates syncopation — it falls just before the next beat, adding rhythmic movement without sounding like a plain echo. It is the go-to for ambient guitar delays and a staple of pop, rock and country productions.
Start at the dotted eighth time from this calculator. If the reverb clutters the attack, shorten it; if you want a bigger, more dramatic sound, lengthen it toward a quarter note. For tight, percussive sources a pre-delay of 15–30 ms often works better than a rhythmically locked value.
Samples = (ms ÷ 1000) × sample_rate. At 44.1 kHz a quarter note at 120 BPM is 500 ms × 44 100 = 22 050 samples. At 48 kHz the same note is 500 × 48 000 = 24 000 samples.
Also known as
TG we-Calculate Editorial Team. (2026). Delay & Reverb Times Calculator — BPM Sync [Online calculator]. TG we-Calculate. https://we-calculate.com/calculator/delay-reverb-times-calculator
TG we-Calculate Editorial Team. "Delay & Reverb Times Calculator — BPM Sync." TG we-Calculate. 2026. https://we-calculate.com/calculator/delay-reverb-times-calculator.
TG we-Calculate Editorial Team, "Delay & Reverb Times Calculator — BPM Sync," TG we-Calculate, 2026. [Online]. Available: https://we-calculate.com/calculator/delay-reverb-times-calculator
@misc{wecalculate_delay_reverb_times_calculator, title = {Delay & Reverb Times Calculator — BPM Sync}, author = {{TG we-Calculate Editorial Team}}, howpublished = {\url{https://we-calculate.com/calculator/delay-reverb-times-calculator}}, year = {2026}, note = {TG we-Calculate} }
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