BPM Tap Calculator

Tempo comes from the length of the gaps between taps, and N taps only produce N-1 gaps -- the first tap just marks the starting point, with nothing before it to measure an interval against. Using the raw tap count instead would overstate the tempo, and by more than you'd expect on short taps: at the default 8 taps over 3.5 seconds the correct answer is 120 BPM, while dividing by 8 instead of 7 would report 137 BPM.

More taps over a longer window average out small timing errors in your tapping. A handful of taps over a second or two can swing wildly with normal human timing variance; tapping along for 8-16 beats across several seconds gives a much steadier result.

Beats per Second is simply the tempo re-expressed as a rate instead of BPM. Bars per Minute groups those beats into standard 4/4 bars (four beats each), which is more useful for thinking in musical phrases or sections rather than individual beats.

The formula assumes every gap between your taps was even and deliberate. Tapping too few times, tapping inconsistently, or tapping over too short a window can all produce a computed tempo far outside the range any real song would use -- try tapping again with more beats over a longer stretch of time.