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Inspector media/tap-tempo

Tap Tempo

Overview

Tap along and the tempo appears from the second tap. It takes the median of the last eight intervals rather than the mean, because everybody mistimes a tap now and then and one late one moves an average of eight by an eighth of its error — the median ignores it entirely. The intervals it used are shown, with the discarded ones struck through, so you can see why the number is what it is instead of wondering. A rolling window rather than a running average means it follows a change instead of getting more sluggish the longer you tap, and timing comes from a monotonic clock so a system clock adjustment mid-tap cannot produce a nonsense reading.

Get the tempo of something playingA record, the radio, a rehearsal — anything you cannot drop into a file analyser.
Set a metronome or a sessionTap the feel you want and take the number to your DAW.
Find a tempo you are hummingTap along with yourself.

Set

Media Tools 16

Neighbours

01 Audio Converter 02 BPM Detector 03 Compress Video 04 Extract Audio from Video 05 Audio HLS Stream Generator 06 HLS Stream Generator

Specification

Command: media.tap_tempo
Set: Media
Input: text
Output: —
Max file: no limit
Batch: single file

Runtime

Engine: ffmpeg-wasm 0.12
Threads: — workers
Isolated: —
WebGPU: —
Memory: —

Transport 0 B

The file is opened, worked on and written back inside this tab. No upload step exists in this tool — there is nowhere for the bytes to go.

Keys

Search: ⌘K
Panels: ⌘1 · ⌘2
Full width: F
All keys: ⌘/

How it works

Start tapping

Tap the pad in time with the music. Space and Enter work too.

Read the tempo

It appears from the second tap and steadies over the next few.

Check the intervals

Taps that fell well outside the beat are struck through and were not counted.

Frequently asked

How many taps do I need?

Two gives a reading and about six makes it steady. It keeps the last eight intervals, so it keeps following you rather than settling on an average of everything since you started.

Why is one of my taps struck through?

Because it fell more than about a third away from the median interval, which means it was a mistimed tap rather than part of the beat. It is shown rather than silently dropped so you can see what was counted.

Does it work on a keyboard?

Yes — the pad is a real button, so Space and Enter both tap it, and it is reachable by keyboard navigation.

Can I find the tempo without tapping?

Yes, if you have the file: the BPM detector analyses the audio directly and draws the beat grid on the waveform.

Keys

Search: ⌘K
Panels: ⌘1 · ⌘2
Full width: F
All keys: ⌘/

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