Find the BPM of a song
Drop a song onto the box above, or choose one. StemVocal reads it from start to end, up to the first 10 minutes, and shows the tempo in beats per minute with the song's key beside it. Choose many songs at once, or drop a whole folder, and each one gets a row in a table, so you can sort a DJ set or a practice list in one go. Select any row to see its full result.
The tempo is a whole number when the song sits on one, as most produced music does, and keeps a decimal when it falls clearly between two.
Half time, double time and the right count
A beat can be counted at more than one speed. Drum and bass is usually counted around 174 BPM, yet its drums also fit a count of 87. Dubstep sits around 140 with a half-time feel, most house and techno between 120 and 130, and hip-hop often between 90 and 115.
StemVocal weighs the likely counts and shows the one listeners most often choose for music that sounds like yours. If the number feels twice as fast or twice as slow as the way you hear the song, press Half or Double. When the other count was nearly as likely, the result says so under the number.
Tap along to check
The tap pad measures the beat from your own timing. Tap it with the pulse of the music, or focus it and press the space bar. After four taps the number settles, and it keeps averaging the last 16 taps. Pause for more than two and a half seconds and it starts a fresh count, so you can check a second song straight away. Tapping is also the quickest way to settle a song whose tempo drifts, such as a live recording.
BPM and key for a DJ set
Beatmatching needs the tempo, and harmonic mixing needs the key. Each result shows both, with the key's Camelot code: songs with the same code, the same number in the other letter, or one number either way usually blend without a clash. The song key finder explains the codes and lists all 24 keys. Copy the table into a spreadsheet, or download the CSV and keep it next to your crate. To bring a song to another tempo, use the tempo changer.
When a reading is off
A few kinds of music give a less certain answer:
- Tempo changes. A song that speeds up, slows down or switches feel gets its main tempo. Tap along through the part you care about.
- No steady pulse. Rubato piano, ambient pads and free-time intros have no single tempo to find. When the beat is not steady, the result says so; tap along to count it yourself.
- Triplet feels. Shuffles and 6/8 grooves can be heard at two counts that differ by a third. Tapping settles which one you mean.
- Short clips. Songs shorter than six seconds are too short to read.
Need the vocals or the instrumental too?
The same song can go straight into StemVocal's acapella extractor for a vocal-only track, or the vocal remover for an instrumental. Split it into stems to get the drums, bass and other instruments on their own, then slow a section down, change its key and loop it in the practice player.
Tempo ranges above are medians of the human annotations in the GiantSteps tempo collection (electronic music) and the GTZAN collection (hip-hop), the same public test sets used to measure this finder.