197 BPM
197 beats per minute is one beat every 304.57 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 197.
Updated 2026-10-17
197 BPM
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Beat, bar and phrase lengths at 197 BPM
At 197 BPM one beat lasts 304.57 ms and a 4/4 bar lasts 1.218 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 3.283 beats per second, or 49.25 bars of 4/4 per minute.
Dance tracks are usually arranged in 8-, 16- and 32-bar phrases. At 197 BPM a 16-bar phrase takes 19.49 s and a 32-bar intro or outro takes 38.98 s. That is 12.51 s shorter than the same 16 bars at 120 BPM. A six-minute track at this tempo contains about 296 bars.
| Length | Time | Milliseconds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 beat | 0.305 s | 304.57 ms |
| 1 bar (4 beats) | 1.218 s | 1218.27 ms |
| 4 bars | 4.873 s | 4873.1 ms |
| 8 bars | 9.746 s | 9746.19 ms |
| 16 bars | 19.49 s | 19492.39 ms |
| 32 bars | 38.98 s | 38984.77 ms |
| 64 bars | 1:18.0 min | 77969.54 ms |
Delay times at 197 BPM
Straight values follow the beat; dotted values are 1.5 times as long and triplets are two-thirds as long. At 197 BPM the popular dotted-eighth delay is 228.43 ms and a quarter-note slapback is 304.57 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) | 1218.27 ms | 1827.41 ms | 812.18 ms | 0.821 Hz |
| 1/2 | 609.14 ms | 913.71 ms | 406.09 ms | 1.642 Hz |
| 1/4 (one beat) | 304.57 ms | 456.85 ms | 203.05 ms | 3.283 Hz |
| 1/8 | 152.28 ms | 228.43 ms | 101.52 ms | 6.567 Hz |
| 1/16 | 76.14 ms | 114.21 ms | 50.76 ms | 13.133 Hz |
| 1/32 | 38.07 ms | 57.11 ms | 25.38 ms | 26.267 Hz |
Reverb times at 197 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 197 BPM a 1/64-note pre-delay is 19.04 ms and a 1/32-note pre-delay is 38.07 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 | 19.04 ms | 304.57 ms |
| Medium plate on vocals | 38.07 ms | 609.14 ms |
| Large hall or pad wash | 38.07 ms | 1218.27 ms |
| Ambient tail over two bars | 76.14 ms | 2436.55 ms |
Genres at 197 BPM
197 BPM is a very fast tempo, usually heard at half-time unless the style is hardcore. It sits near the upper end of the hardcore/gabber range (160–200).
Heard at half-time (98.5 BPM) it lines up with ambient/downtempo, hip-hop, reggae/dub, reggaeton/dembow and pop. 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.
- Hardcore/gabber: typically 160–200 BPM — speedcore and some gabber go well beyond 200.
Mixing into 197 BPM
To bring a track at another tempo up or down to 197 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 197 BPM reaches 181.2–212.8 BPM; a ±16 % range reaches 165.5–228.5 BPM.
| Track tempo | Pitch change to reach 197 | Key shift without key lock |
|---|---|---|
| 191 BPM | +3.14 % | +0.54 st |
| 193 BPM | +2.07 % | +0.36 st |
| 195 BPM | +1.03 % | +0.18 st |
| 196 BPM | +0.51 % | +0.09 st |
| 198 BPM | −0.51 % | −0.09 st |
| 199 BPM | −1.01 % | −0.17 st |
| 201 BPM | −1.99 % | −0.35 st |
| 203 BPM | −2.96 % | −0.52 st |
Half-time, double-time and nearby tempos
Half-time of 197 BPM is 98.5 BPM and double-time is 394 BPM.
394 BPM is outside the 60–200 range of these pages; the half/double-time converter works with any value.
98.5 BPM falls between two whole tempos, so the nearest pages, 98 and 99 BPM, are linked instead.
Each 1 BPM step at this tempo changes the beat by about 1.54 ms, so neighbouring tempos are close enough to beatmatch with a small pitch move.
Frequently asked questions
- How many milliseconds is one beat at 197 BPM?
- One beat (a quarter note) at 197 BPM is 60,000 ÷ 197 = 304.57 ms. A 4/4 bar is four beats, 1218.27 ms.
- What is the dotted eighth delay time at 197 BPM?
- A dotted 1/8 delay at 197 BPM is 228.43 ms: an eighth note (152.28 ms) multiplied by 1.5. A straight quarter-note delay is 304.57 ms and a quarter-note triplet is 203.05 ms.
- What genre is 197 BPM?
- Hardcore/gabber commonly uses 197 BPM. Genre ranges overlap, so the drum pattern and sound decide the style more than the number does.
- What is 197 BPM in Hz?
- 197 BPM is 3.2833 Hz when one cycle equals one beat. An LFO synced to one bar runs at 0.8208 Hz, and one synced to sixteenth notes at 13.133 Hz.