85 BPM
85 beats per minute is one beat every 705.88 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 85.
Updated 2026-10-17
85 BPM
The interactive tool loads when JavaScript is available. The complete guide remains readable below.
Beat, bar and phrase lengths at 85 BPM
At 85 BPM one beat lasts 705.88 ms and a 4/4 bar lasts 2.824 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 1.417 beats per second, or 21.25 bars of 4/4 per minute.
Dance tracks are usually arranged in 8-, 16- and 32-bar phrases. At 85 BPM a 16-bar phrase takes 45.18 s and a 32-bar intro or outro takes 1:30.4 min. That is 13.18 s longer than the same 16 bars at 120 BPM. A six-minute track at this tempo contains about 128 bars.
| Length | Time | Milliseconds |
|---|---|---|
| 1 beat | 0.706 s | 705.88 ms |
| 1 bar (4 beats) | 2.824 s | 2823.53 ms |
| 4 bars | 11.29 s | 11294.12 ms |
| 8 bars | 22.59 s | 22588.24 ms |
| 16 bars | 45.18 s | 45176.47 ms |
| 32 bars | 1:30.4 min | 90352.94 ms |
| 64 bars | 3:00.7 min | 180705.88 ms |
Delay times at 85 BPM
Straight values follow the beat; dotted values are 1.5 times as long and triplets are two-thirds as long. At 85 BPM the popular dotted-eighth delay is 529.41 ms and a quarter-note slapback is 705.88 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) | 2823.53 ms | 4235.29 ms | 1882.35 ms | 0.354 Hz |
| 1/2 | 1411.76 ms | 2117.65 ms | 941.18 ms | 0.708 Hz |
| 1/4 (one beat) | 705.88 ms | 1058.82 ms | 470.59 ms | 1.417 Hz |
| 1/8 | 352.94 ms | 529.41 ms | 235.29 ms | 2.833 Hz |
| 1/16 | 176.47 ms | 264.71 ms | 117.65 ms | 5.667 Hz |
| 1/32 | 88.24 ms | 132.35 ms | 58.82 ms | 11.333 Hz |
Reverb times at 85 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 85 BPM a 1/64-note pre-delay is 44.12 ms and a 1/32-note pre-delay is 88.24 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 | 44.12 ms | 705.88 ms |
| Medium plate on vocals | 88.24 ms | 1411.76 ms |
| Large hall or pad wash | 88.24 ms | 2823.53 ms |
| Ambient tail over two bars | 176.47 ms | 5647.06 ms |
Genres at 85 BPM
85 BPM is a relaxed, mid-slow tempo. It sits in the middle of the ambient/downtempo range (60–100), in the middle of the hip-hop range (70–100) and in the middle of the reggae/dub range (70–100).
Counted at double-time (170 BPM) it matches drum and bass and hardcore/gabber. 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.
- Hip-hop: typically 70–100 BPM — boom-bap often sits around 85–95.
- Reggae/dub: typically 70–100 BPM — the off-beat skank can make the pulse feel faster than it is.
Mixing into 85 BPM
To bring a track at another tempo up or down to 85 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 85 BPM reaches 78.2–91.8 BPM; a ±16 % range reaches 71.4–98.6 BPM.
| Track tempo | Pitch change to reach 85 | Key shift without key lock |
|---|---|---|
| 79 BPM | +7.59 % | +1.27 st |
| 81 BPM | +4.94 % | +0.83 st |
| 83 BPM | +2.41 % | +0.41 st |
| 84 BPM | +1.19 % | +0.2 st |
| 86 BPM | −1.16 % | −0.2 st |
| 87 BPM | −2.3 % | −0.4 st |
| 89 BPM | −4.49 % | −0.8 st |
| 91 BPM | −6.59 % | −1.18 st |
Half-time, double-time and nearby tempos
Half-time of 85 BPM is 42.5 BPM and double-time is 170 BPM.
42.5 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 8.21 ms, so neighbouring tempos are close enough to beatmatch with a small pitch move.
Frequently asked questions
- How many milliseconds is one beat at 85 BPM?
- One beat (a quarter note) at 85 BPM is 60,000 ÷ 85 = 705.88 ms. A 4/4 bar is four beats, 2823.53 ms.
- What is the dotted eighth delay time at 85 BPM?
- A dotted 1/8 delay at 85 BPM is 529.41 ms: an eighth note (352.94 ms) multiplied by 1.5. A straight quarter-note delay is 705.88 ms and a quarter-note triplet is 470.59 ms.
- What genre is 85 BPM?
- Ambient/downtempo, hip-hop and reggae/dub commonly use 85 BPM. Genre ranges overlap, so the drum pattern and sound decide the style more than the number does.
- What is 85 BPM in Hz?
- 85 BPM is 1.4167 Hz when one cycle equals one beat. An LFO synced to one bar runs at 0.3542 Hz, and one synced to sixteenth notes at 5.667 Hz.