Hz BPM Octaves Calculator

Music calculator which converts frequency to tempo and vice versa.

Without considering inharmonicity, the musical "octave" can be described simply as a doubling in frequency. For example: If middle C is 256 Hz, one octave up would be 512 Hz, and one octave down would be 128 Hz. Two octaves down would be 64 Hz, three octaves down would be 32 Hz, and so on. If you continue dividing by two, you'll find that eight octaves down would be 1 Hz, which can also be described as "one cycle per second". While a sine wave at 1 Hz is too slow for the human ear to hear, a metronome which ticks once per second is quite easy to hear. Musicians typically do not express tempo in terms of "per second", but rather in terms of "per minute". A tempo of "one beat per second" is typically described as 60 BPM (beats per minute). Make sense? Now you can play in a tempo which matches the key of your music! Who cares? I don't know... but you can use this calculator to try it out and see how it feels. Show More