Tempo (bpm) Calculations

The relationship between Tempo, Time and Length is quite simple. Basically, Length = Tempo x Time. The difficulty arises because of the different units of mesurement used.

- Tempo is in beats per minute (bpm).

- Length is in bars (not beats).

- Time is in seconds (not minutes).

As such, the easiest way to resolve the problem is to introduce a constant of 240 (ie 60 seconds per minute x 4 beats per bar). This normalises the equation as follows:-

(BARS x 240) = BPM x SECONDS

For LENGTH in Bars,

BARS = (BPM x SECONDS) / 240

For TEMPO in bpm,

BPM = (BARS x 240) / SECONDS

For TIME in seconds,

SECONDS = (BARS x 240) / BPM

Time is a critical factor when composing music for commercial use. As such, I have provided a table below which gives Tempo settings for 20, 30 and 40 seconds. For example, to achieve 18 seconds in 9 bars requires a tempo of 120bpm.

Delay Calculations

The same equation (as above) can be used to calculate delay times. However, digital delay times are quoted in milliseconds so the equation has to be altered a bit.

For TIME in milliseconds,

MilliSeconds = (BARS x 240,000) / BPM

So to work out the delay-time for 3 sixteenths of a bar would be,

((240,000 x 3) / 16) / BPM

which equals to 45,000 / BPM. Assuming the tempo is 120bpm, the delay time for 3/16 of a bar would be

45,000 / 120 = 375 milliseconds.

The table below lists the various delay times in milliseconds for 16ths of a bar and 12ths of a bar.

Rhyme Chart

Here's a simple chart to help with rhyming. Basically you take the last syllable of a word and try starting the syllable with each of the letters in the chart.

For example, if you were trying to rhyme with "orange", the last syllable would be "..ange". Going through the chart, you'd come up with "range", "change" and "strange".

R L H J N V M

B BR BL

C CR CL CH CHR

D DR

F FR FL

G GR GL GN

K KR KL KN QU

P PR PL PH

S SL SH SHR SW SM

SC SCR SK

SP SPR SPL SN

ST STR

T TR TH THR TW

W WR WH

Y X Z A E I O U