61 BPM
61 beats per minute is one beat every 983.61 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 61.
Updated 2026-10-17
61 BPM
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Beat, bar and phrase lengths at 61 BPM
At 61 BPM one beat lasts 983.61 ms and a 4/4 bar lasts 3.934 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 1.017 beats per second, or 15.25 bars of 4/4 per minute.
Dance tracks are usually arranged in 8-, 16- and 32-bar phrases. At 61 BPM a 16-bar phrase takes 1:03.0 min and a 32-bar intro or outro takes 2:05.9 min. That is 30.95 s longer than the same 16 bars at 120 BPM. A six-minute track at this tempo contains about 92 bars.
| Length | Time | Milliseconds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 beat | 0.984 s | 983.61 ms |
| 1 bar (4 beats) | 3.934 s | 3934.43 ms |
| 4 bars | 15.74 s | 15737.7 ms |
| 8 bars | 31.48 s | 31475.41 ms |
| 16 bars | 1:03.0 min | 62950.82 ms |
| 32 bars | 2:05.9 min | 125901.64 ms |
| 64 bars | 4:11.8 min | 251803.28 ms |
Delay times at 61 BPM
Straight values follow the beat; dotted values are 1.5 times as long and triplets are two-thirds as long. At 61 BPM the popular dotted-eighth delay is 737.7 ms and a quarter-note slapback is 983.61 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) | 3934.43 ms | 5901.64 ms | 2622.95 ms | 0.254 Hz |
| 1/2 | 1967.21 ms | 2950.82 ms | 1311.48 ms | 0.508 Hz |
| 1/4 (one beat) | 983.61 ms | 1475.41 ms | 655.74 ms | 1.017 Hz |
| 1/8 | 491.8 ms | 737.7 ms | 327.87 ms | 2.033 Hz |
| 1/16 | 245.9 ms | 368.85 ms | 163.93 ms | 4.067 Hz |
| 1/32 | 122.95 ms | 184.43 ms | 81.97 ms | 8.133 Hz |
Reverb times at 61 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 61 BPM a 1/64-note pre-delay is 61.48 ms and a 1/32-note pre-delay is 122.95 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 | 61.48 ms | 983.61 ms |
| Medium plate on vocals | 122.95 ms | 1967.21 ms |
| Large hall or pad wash | 122.95 ms | 3934.43 ms |
| Ambient tail over two bars | 245.9 ms | 7868.85 ms |
Genres at 61 BPM
61 BPM is a slow tempo; many listeners will also hear it at double-time. It sits near the low end of the ambient/downtempo range (60–100).
Counted at double-time (122 BPM) it matches pop, disco and house. 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.
- Ambient/downtempo: typically 60–100 BPM — beatless ambient may not have a useful BPM at all.
Mixing into 61 BPM
To bring a track at another tempo up or down to 61 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 61 BPM reaches 56.1–65.9 BPM; a ±16 % range reaches 51.2–70.8 BPM.
| Track tempo | Pitch change to reach 61 | Key shift without key lock |
|---|---|---|
| 55 BPM | +10.91 % | +1.79 st |
| 57 BPM | +7.02 % | +1.17 st |
| 59 BPM | +3.39 % | +0.58 st |
| 60 BPM | +1.67 % | +0.29 st |
| 62 BPM | −1.61 % | −0.28 st |
| 63 BPM | −3.17 % | −0.56 st |
| 65 BPM | −6.15 % | −1.1 st |
| 67 BPM | −8.96 % | −1.62 st |
Half-time, double-time and nearby tempos
Half-time of 61 BPM is 30.5 BPM and double-time is 122 BPM.
30.5 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 15.86 ms, so neighbouring tempos are close enough to beatmatch with a small pitch move.
Frequently asked questions
- How many milliseconds is one beat at 61 BPM?
- One beat (a quarter note) at 61 BPM is 60,000 ÷ 61 = 983.61 ms. A 4/4 bar is four beats, 3934.43 ms.
- What is the dotted eighth delay time at 61 BPM?
- A dotted 1/8 delay at 61 BPM is 737.7 ms: an eighth note (491.8 ms) multiplied by 1.5. A straight quarter-note delay is 983.61 ms and a quarter-note triplet is 655.74 ms.
- What genre is 61 BPM?
- Ambient/downtempo commonly uses 61 BPM. Genre ranges overlap, so the drum pattern and sound decide the style more than the number does.
- What is 61 BPM in Hz?
- 61 BPM is 1.0167 Hz when one cycle equals one beat. An LFO synced to one bar runs at 0.2542 Hz, and one synced to sixteenth notes at 4.067 Hz.