159 BPM
159 beats per minute is one beat every 377.36 ms. Below: bar and phrase lengths, delay and reverb times, LFO rates, the genres that use this tempo, and the pitch change needed to mix in from nearby tempos. Start the metronome or tap along to a track to check it is really 159.
Updated 2026-10-17
159 BPM
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Beat, bar and phrase lengths at 159 BPM
At 159 BPM one beat lasts 377.36 ms and a 4/4 bar lasts 1.509 s. The beat is not a whole number of milliseconds, so round to the nearest 0.1 ms when you type times in by hand, or use your plugin's tempo sync. That is 2.65 beats per second, or 39.75 bars of 4/4 per minute.
Dance tracks are usually arranged in 8-, 16- and 32-bar phrases. At 159 BPM a 16-bar phrase takes 24.15 s and a 32-bar intro or outro takes 48.3 s. That is 7.85 s shorter than the same 16 bars at 120 BPM. A six-minute track at this tempo contains about 239 bars.
| Length | Time | Milliseconds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 beat | 0.377 s | 377.36 ms |
| 1 bar (4 beats) | 1.509 s | 1509.43 ms |
| 4 bars | 6.038 s | 6037.74 ms |
| 8 bars | 12.08 s | 12075.47 ms |
| 16 bars | 24.15 s | 24150.94 ms |
| 32 bars | 48.3 s | 48301.89 ms |
| 64 bars | 1:36.6 min | 96603.77 ms |
Delay times at 159 BPM
Straight values follow the beat; dotted values are 1.5 times as long and triplets are two-thirds as long. At 159 BPM the popular dotted-eighth delay is 283.02 ms and a quarter-note slapback is 377.36 ms. The Hz column is the matching rate for an LFO, tremolo or auto-pan synced to the straight note.
| Note | Straight | Dotted | Triplet | Rate (straight) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/1 (one 4/4 bar) | 1509.43 ms | 2264.15 ms | 1006.29 ms | 0.663 Hz |
| 1/2 | 754.72 ms | 1132.08 ms | 503.14 ms | 1.325 Hz |
| 1/4 (one beat) | 377.36 ms | 566.04 ms | 251.57 ms | 2.65 Hz |
| 1/8 | 188.68 ms | 283.02 ms | 125.79 ms | 5.3 Hz |
| 1/16 | 94.34 ms | 141.51 ms | 62.89 ms | 10.6 Hz |
| 1/32 | 47.17 ms | 70.75 ms | 31.45 ms | 21.2 Hz |
Reverb times at 159 BPM
A common way to keep a reverb in time is to tie its pre-delay to a short note value and let the tail fade within a longer one. At 159 BPM a 1/64-note pre-delay is 23.58 ms and a 1/32-note pre-delay is 47.17 ms.
The decay control on most reverbs is RT60, the time it takes the tail to fall by 60 dB, so the audible tail ends earlier than the number shown. Treat these values as starting points and adjust by ear.
| Reverb character | Pre-delay | Decay (RT60) |
|---|---|---|
| Tight room on drums | 23.58 ms | 377.36 ms |
| Medium plate on vocals | 47.17 ms | 754.72 ms |
| Large hall or pad wash | 47.17 ms | 1509.43 ms |
| Ambient tail over two bars | 94.34 ms | 3018.87 ms |
Genres at 159 BPM
159 BPM is a fast tempo that is often felt at half-time. It sits near the upper end of the hardstyle range (145–160) and in the middle of the footwork/juke range (155–165).
Heard at half-time (79.5 BPM) it lines up with ambient/downtempo, hip-hop and reggae/dub. A detector or a tag in your library may report either reading, so check by ear which one the drums suggest.
These ranges are common practice rather than rules: genre is decided by rhythm, sound and scene as much as by tempo, and plenty of tracks sit outside the usual numbers.
- Hardstyle: typically 145–160 BPM — most releases sit near 150.
- Footwork/juke: typically 155–165 BPM — built around 160 with half-time and triplet patterns.
Mixing into 159 BPM
To bring a track at another tempo up or down to 159 BPM, move its pitch fader by the percentage below. Without key lock the key moves too, by the number of semitones shown; about 6 % is one semitone, so changes beyond that are where key lock (master tempo) starts to matter.
A ±8 % pitch fader on a track at 159 BPM reaches 146.3–171.7 BPM; a ±16 % range reaches 133.6–184.4 BPM.
| Track tempo | Pitch change to reach 159 | Key shift without key lock |
|---|---|---|
| 153 BPM | +3.92 % | +0.67 st |
| 155 BPM | +2.58 % | +0.44 st |
| 157 BPM | +1.27 % | +0.22 st |
| 158 BPM | +0.63 % | +0.11 st |
| 160 BPM | −0.62 % | −0.11 st |
| 161 BPM | −1.24 % | −0.22 st |
| 163 BPM | −2.45 % | −0.43 st |
| 165 BPM | −3.64 % | −0.64 st |
Half-time, double-time and nearby tempos
Half-time of 159 BPM is 79.5 BPM and double-time is 318 BPM.
318 BPM is outside the 60–200 range of these pages; the half/double-time converter works with any value.
79.5 BPM falls between two whole tempos, so the nearest pages, 79 and 80 BPM, are linked instead.
Each 1 BPM step at this tempo changes the beat by about 2.36 ms, so neighbouring tempos are close enough to beatmatch with a small pitch move.
Frequently asked questions
- How many milliseconds is one beat at 159 BPM?
- One beat (a quarter note) at 159 BPM is 60,000 ÷ 159 = 377.36 ms. A 4/4 bar is four beats, 1509.43 ms.
- What is the dotted eighth delay time at 159 BPM?
- A dotted 1/8 delay at 159 BPM is 283.02 ms: an eighth note (188.68 ms) multiplied by 1.5. A straight quarter-note delay is 377.36 ms and a quarter-note triplet is 251.57 ms.
- What genre is 159 BPM?
- Hardstyle and footwork/juke commonly use 159 BPM. Genre ranges overlap, so the drum pattern and sound decide the style more than the number does.
- What is 159 BPM in Hz?
- 159 BPM is 2.65 Hz when one cycle equals one beat. An LFO synced to one bar runs at 0.6625 Hz, and one synced to sixteenth notes at 10.6 Hz.