162 BPM
162 beats per minute is one beat every 370.37 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 162.
Updated 2026-10-17
162 BPM
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Beat, bar and phrase lengths at 162 BPM
At 162 BPM one beat lasts 370.37 ms and a 4/4 bar lasts 1.481 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 2.7 beats per second, or 40.5 bars of 4/4 per minute.
Dance tracks are usually arranged in 8-, 16- and 32-bar phrases. At 162 BPM a 16-bar phrase takes 23.7 s and a 32-bar intro or outro takes 47.41 s. That is 8.3 s shorter than the same 16 bars at 120 BPM. A six-minute track at this tempo contains about 243 bars.
| Length | Time | Milliseconds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 beat | 0.37 s | 370.37 ms |
| 1 bar (4 beats) | 1.481 s | 1481.48 ms |
| 4 bars | 5.926 s | 5925.93 ms |
| 8 bars | 11.85 s | 11851.85 ms |
| 16 bars | 23.7 s | 23703.7 ms |
| 32 bars | 47.41 s | 47407.41 ms |
| 64 bars | 1:34.8 min | 94814.81 ms |
Delay times at 162 BPM
Straight values follow the beat; dotted values are 1.5 times as long and triplets are two-thirds as long. At 162 BPM the popular dotted-eighth delay is 277.78 ms and a quarter-note slapback is 370.37 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) | 1481.48 ms | 2222.22 ms | 987.65 ms | 0.675 Hz |
| 1/2 | 740.74 ms | 1111.11 ms | 493.83 ms | 1.35 Hz |
| 1/4 (one beat) | 370.37 ms | 555.56 ms | 246.91 ms | 2.7 Hz |
| 1/8 | 185.19 ms | 277.78 ms | 123.46 ms | 5.4 Hz |
| 1/16 | 92.59 ms | 138.89 ms | 61.73 ms | 10.8 Hz |
| 1/32 | 46.3 ms | 69.44 ms | 30.86 ms | 21.6 Hz |
Reverb times at 162 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 162 BPM a 1/64-note pre-delay is 23.15 ms and a 1/32-note pre-delay is 46.3 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 | 23.15 ms | 370.37 ms |
| Medium plate on vocals | 46.3 ms | 740.74 ms |
| Large hall or pad wash | 46.3 ms | 1481.48 ms |
| Ambient tail over two bars | 92.59 ms | 2962.96 ms |
Genres at 162 BPM
162 BPM is a fast tempo that is often felt at half-time. It sits in the middle of the footwork/juke range (155–165), near the low end of the drum and bass range (160–180) and near the low end of the hardcore/gabber range (160–200).
Heard at half-time (81 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.
- Footwork/juke: typically 155–165 BPM — built around 160 with half-time and triplet patterns.
- Drum and bass: typically 160–180 BPM — modern releases mostly sit at 170–176; often felt at half-time.
- Hardcore/gabber: typically 160–200 BPM — speedcore and some gabber go well beyond 200.
Mixing into 162 BPM
To bring a track at another tempo up or down to 162 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 162 BPM reaches 149–175 BPM; a ±16 % range reaches 136.1–187.9 BPM.
| Track tempo | Pitch change to reach 162 | Key shift without key lock |
|---|---|---|
| 156 BPM | +3.85 % | +0.65 st |
| 158 BPM | +2.53 % | +0.43 st |
| 160 BPM | +1.25 % | +0.22 st |
| 161 BPM | +0.62 % | +0.11 st |
| 163 BPM | −0.61 % | −0.11 st |
| 164 BPM | −1.22 % | −0.21 st |
| 166 BPM | −2.41 % | −0.42 st |
| 168 BPM | −3.57 % | −0.63 st |
Half-time, double-time and nearby tempos
Half-time of 162 BPM is 81 BPM and double-time is 324 BPM.
324 BPM is outside the 60–200 range of these pages; the half/double-time converter works with any value.
Each 1 BPM step at this tempo changes the beat by about 2.27 ms, so neighbouring tempos are close enough to beatmatch with a small pitch move.
Frequently asked questions
- How many milliseconds is one beat at 162 BPM?
- One beat (a quarter note) at 162 BPM is 60,000 ÷ 162 = 370.37 ms. A 4/4 bar is four beats, 1481.48 ms.
- What is the dotted eighth delay time at 162 BPM?
- A dotted 1/8 delay at 162 BPM is 277.78 ms: an eighth note (185.19 ms) multiplied by 1.5. A straight quarter-note delay is 370.37 ms and a quarter-note triplet is 246.91 ms.
- What genre is 162 BPM?
- Footwork/juke, drum and bass and hardcore/gabber commonly use 162 BPM. Genre ranges overlap, so the drum pattern and sound decide the style more than the number does.
- What is 162 BPM in Hz?
- 162 BPM is 2.7 Hz when one cycle equals one beat. An LFO synced to one bar runs at 0.675 Hz, and one synced to sixteenth notes at 10.8 Hz.