Why is the dotted value so much longer than the straight one?

Because a dot in music notation adds half of the note's own value. A dotted eighth is an eighth plus half an eighth, which is one and a half times the straight eighth. That is why the dotted column is always exactly one and a half times the main column.

What is the frequency column for?

It is one divided by the time, which is the rate at which that division repeats. Delays use time, but modulation effects use rate, so a chorus that should pulse with the music takes its rate from here rather than from the millisecond figure.

Which division is the classic for a stereo delay?

The dotted eighth, which at a hundred and twenty beats per minute is three hundred and seventy five milliseconds. The long gap between repeats and the shorter offset between the two sides is what gives the sound its width without crowding the beat.

How do I handle a swung feel?

Swing sits between the straight and triplet values rather than on either. A common approach is to move the triplet figure slightly toward the straight one, or to start from the triplet and increase the delay a little until the repeats land where the music does.

Do I enter the tempo in beats per minute even for a fast subdivision?

Yes. The tempo is the tempo, and the division you choose handles the fraction. Entering a doubled tempo to reach an eighth note would also double every other row and would no longer describe the music.

Delay Time Calculator

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Delay Time Calculator turns a tempo into the delay times every note division needs, with straight, dotted and triplet values side by side. It is the table a mixing engineer reaches for before touching a delay.

What is Delay Time Calculator?

Enter a tempo and the table fills in with twelve divisions, each showing its straight time in milliseconds, its dotted and triplet equivalents, and the modulation rate that corresponds to it.

The table and its columns:

Twelve divisions from a whole note down to a thirty second, labelled in the usual way.
Three timing columns per row: the straight value, the dotted value at one and a half times it, and the triplet value at two thirds.
A fourth column giving the frequency that corresponds to each division, which is the modulation rate to dial into a chorus or tremolo that should sit in time.
A footnote naming the classic settings, including the eighth note dotted for a wide stereo ping-pong delay.

Everything in the table is derived from one number, the length of a beat. A quarter note is one beat, so its time is simply the beat length; a whole note is four beats, an eighth is half a beat, and the sixteenth and thirty second follow the same halving. The dotted column multiplies each of those by one and a half, which is what a dot does in notation: it adds half the note's value. The triplet column multiplies by two thirds, because three triplet notes fit into the space of two ordinary ones. The frequency column is the reciprocal of the time, and it exists because the same arithmetic that sets a delay also sets a modulation: a chorus whose rate matches a division will pulse with the music rather than against it. At the default tempo of a hundred and twenty, one beat is five hundred milliseconds, so a quarter note delay reads five hundred, its dotted form seven hundred and fifty, and its triplet form three hundred and thirty three. The whole table then follows from those by doubling and halving. Nothing here is approximate, and nothing depends on the material; the table is a conversion from tempo to time, and the musical judgement about which division suits a part comes from listening.

What the table cannot tell you:

Which division fits the music, since that is a matter of taste.
Where the delay should sit in the stereo image or how much feedback it wants.
Anything about swing, which falls between the straight and triplet values.
Reverb pre-delay or decay, which follow the room rather than the division.
Tempo changes over time; the table is computed for the figure you enter.
Nothing is measured from audio, so the tempo must be known or found elsewhere.

Use it when a delay has to sit in time rather than in free time: setting a quarter note slap on a vocal, choosing an eighth or dotted eighth for a wide rhythmic echo, or checking that a chorus rate will not fight the track. When the useful figure is a reverb's pre-delay and decay rather than a delay time, the reverb time calculator gives those from the same tempo, and when the tempo itself still needs measuring, the BPM calculator and tap tempo tools supply it.

How to use Delay Time Calculator

Enter the tempo of the material, or use the default to see the shape of the table.
Find the note division the effect should follow.
Read the straight, dotted or triplet time from that row in milliseconds.
Take the frequency column instead when the target is a modulation rate.

When to use Delay Time Calculator vs related tools

Delay Time Calculator is the tool whenever an effect has to lock to the tempo rather than run free. Reverb Time Calculator does the same job for pre-delay and decay. When the delay is being heard rather than calculated, Echo Delay Generator produces it as audio, and BPM Calculator or Tap Tempo supply the tempo figure this table depends on.

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