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Say I have a delay that doesn't let you tap tempo, but you know what tempo you will be playing at for a song and don't intend to change tempo (at least while the pedal's on). You also know to the millisecond what the Time knob is set to, and can go as low as 1 ms.

What setting do you need to dial it in at to get:

  • 1/8
  • Dotted 1/8
  • 1/4 triplet?
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1 Answer 1

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There are 60,000 milliseconds in a minute (60 seconds x 1,000). Divide this by the BPM to get the number of milliseconds in a beat, say 100bpm:

60,000/100 = 600ms in one beat or quarter note (if you’re using an x/4 time signature

Eighth note at 100 bpm is 600 x .5 (1/2) = 300ms

Dotted eighth at 100bpm is 600 x .75 (3/4) = 450ms

Quarter triplet at 100bpm is 600 x .667 (2/3) = 400ms

OR you can use this website:

https://www.keyandpitch.com/tools/bpm-to-ms-calculator/

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  • Question - why would one set a tempo so the delay was exactly fitting with, say, quavers? Unless one wanted to harmonise with oneself in quavers? I'm obviously missing something.
    – Tim
    Jun 11, 2020 at 6:48
  • @Tim you're missing something ... delay is used to create interesting and complex rhythmic effects. Dotted quarter and eighth notes are my favorites, sometimes mixed with straight eighths or quarter notes. Or for triplet swing/shuffle feel, have the delay play on the "and", like if it's 3 eights per beat, delay at 2 eights. If you don't have to sync to an external or DAW clock, you can do this with just the delay, set it to something and imagine that that's a dotted quarter, quarter etc.
    – piiperi Reinstate Monica
    Jun 11, 2020 at 9:05
  • @piiperiReinstateMonica, I like those ideas, thanks for sharing. I’ll have to try the 2nd beat of the 8th triplet, sounds like it would be fun to play with.
    – John Belzaguy
    Jun 11, 2020 at 17:00
  • Actually I meant third ... delay 2 eights, then the delay effect repeats the note. Anyway, use feedback to get a polyrhythmic effect, for example three-over-four.
    – piiperi Reinstate Monica
    Jun 11, 2020 at 17:02
  • @piiperiReinstateMonica, The 3rd 8th also occurred to me when you mentioned it. The second could work too though, a very abrupt kind of rhythmic slap back
    – John Belzaguy
    Jun 11, 2020 at 17:04

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