BPM counter
Tap the button, or the space bar, in time with whatever is playing. The page keeps the median of your taps, so one stray tap does not spoil the reading, and shows the tempo, the pulse you are actually following and how long one bar lasts.
Tap four or five times and the number settles. Tapping a steady crotchet beat gives you the tempo directly; tapping the faster pulse inside it gives half, so check which pulse you are following. The page shows both: your tap rate, and the crotchet tempo if you are tapping in eighths or sixteenths.
The reading is the median of your last eight intervals, not the average of every tap since you started. That is what makes it survive a stumble: one late tap moves a median by nothing, while an average drags the whole reading with it.
The tempo words are the ones printed on scores. Grave is roughly 20 to 40 BPM, Largo 40 to 60, Adagio 60 to 66, Andante 76 to 108, Moderato 108 to 120, Allegro 120 to 168 and Presto 168 to 200. Composers use them for character as much as for speed, so treat them as a starting point rather than a definition. A bar of 4/4 at 120 BPM lasts two seconds; at 90 BPM it lasts two seconds and two thirds.
Write the number down once you have it: a DAW wants the project tempo set before you record, and a band wants it on the setlist. If a track has no obvious pulse, count four aloud and tap once on each "1" instead of tapping every note.
SUS4 BPM Tap
SUS4 BPM Tap also listens: it works the tempo out from the microphone in about a second, reads it off an MP3, M4A or WAV file, saves readings to a history and plays a click at the tempo it found. Free to download; Pro is £1.99 a month after a 7-day trial.
The app version keeps your settings and works with no internet: on a stage, in a rehearsal room, or on a train. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.
Other free tools
- Online metronomeA metronome in your browser. Set the tempo from 20 to 300 BPM, choose a time signature and subdivisions, and keep the click running while you play.
- Capo chartA guitar capo chart. Play an open C shape with the capo on fret 2 and it sounds as D. Every position to the seventh fret, and the shapes that sound each key.
- Online guitar tunerA chromatic tuner in your browser. Play a note and see the pitch, the nearest note and how many cents sharp or flat you are. Guitar, bass, ukulele and violin.
Guides, apps and plugins
- SUS4 DAW HelpWhere each DAW keeps the project tempo, and how to get a recording to sit on it.
- SUS4 MetronomeSet the click to the tempo you just found.
- SUS4 DrumAlignA performance that drifts off the tempo you measured: fix it in the mix.