Music tempo delay and sample timing calculator

What this calculation answers

A tempo gives the duration of a reference beat. This page explicitly treats BPM as quarter-note beats, then derives other note fractions. A dotted or triplet modifier changes duration by a ratio rather than changing the underlying tempo.

Rhythmic delay is distinct from propagation delay through air. It is a music timing target, which a DAW or hardware effect may need to represent on a discrete sample grid.

The Audio path delay alignment calculator derives arrival differences from physical distance and supplied electronic latency. That alignment delay is independent of a musical note-grid delay.

Use the right input conventions

Choose a note denominator: four means a quarter note, eight an eighth and one a whole note. The dotted multiplier is one and a half; the triplet multiplier is two-thirds of the corresponding straight duration.

Sample rate converts the ideal time to a nearest integer sample count. The repeat index is a timing position, not a feedback-gain or decay setting. No loudness or stability behavior is inferred from it.

Interpret the result

The timing error reports rounded-sample duration minus the ideal duration. The worked repeat table uses the ideal unrounded interval, so it does not silently accumulate that quantization error over its entries.

Only the first twenty-four repeats are displayed when a larger index is entered. The headline still calculates the requested repeat position. Swing, tempo automation and host synchronization remain outside the fixed-tempo model.

Work through the example

At 120 quarter-note BPM, one beat lasts 500 ms. An eighth note lasts 250 ms, and its dotted form lasts 375 ms.

At 48000 samples per second, 375 ms is exactly 18000 samples. The fourth ideal repeat position is 1500 ms. A different tempo can produce a noninteger sample target and a small displayed rounding error.

Where the model stops

Fixed quarter-note BPM and ideal note fractions only; no DAW synchronization, swing, changing tempo or feedback amplitude model.

Check the beat convention used by your sequencer or score. A compound-time pulse may be displayed differently from quarter-note BPM.