House · 1980s — present

What BPM is Acid house?

Acid house sits between 118–128 BPM by editorial convention. We don't yet have enough verified acid house tracks in the catalog to confirm a measured median, so the figures on this page are anchored to the editorial range.

Editorial range

118–128

Family

House

Era

1980s

Editorial-only page

We don’t yet have enough verified acid house tracks in the catalog to draw a measured distribution. The BPM range, genre context, technique and history below are anchored to the editorial taxonomy — the measured charts and example tracks will appear once the catalog reaches 10+ tagged tracks. Spot a missing track? Let us know.

Why this tempo?

Acid house settled into the 118–128 BPM range because it emerged from house music's foundational 4/4 kick at around 120 BPM, but the genre's hypnotic character demanded space for the TB-303's squelch to breathe and mutate across 8- and 16-bar phrases. The tempo sits fast enough to sustain dancefloor momentum and lock with the kick's repetitive thump, yet slow enough that the acid line's filter sweeps and resonance peaks register as distinct melodic events rather than blur. Equipment constraints mattered too: the 303's sequencer worked intuitively at these speeds, and early acid tracks needed sufficient headroom for the synth to dominate without drowning the rhythm. The range also accommodates both stripped, minimal acid (lower end) and more frenetic, bass-heavy variants (upper end).

Where acid house sits on the tempo axis

Median BPM of acid house compared to neighbouring genres in the same family. Closer medians mean easier cross-genre transitions.

120124128

Producing acid house — tempo notes

›Set your 303 sequencer to 16 steps at 124 BPM; this locks the acid line to quarter-note subdivisions, letting filter modulation land on predictable beat boundaries.
›Sidechain your 303 to the kick with a fast attack and 200–300 ms release at 122–126 BPM to maintain groove clarity without losing the squelch's presence on off-beats.
›Keep breakdowns at 120 BPM minimum; dropping below 118 risks losing the hypnotic trance state that defines acid's dancefloor function.

Mixing acid house sets — tempo notes

›When blending acid tracks, aim for a 32-bar phrase boundary at 120–124 BPM to avoid jarring tempo shifts; acid's repetitive structure demands clean, predictable transitions.
›Use EQ to isolate the 303's peak resonance (typically 1–4 kHz) and ride it during mixes; at 124 BPM, a well-timed filter sweep can anchor beat-matching across tracks with slightly different groove feels.
›Maintain kick-to-303 separation by high-passing the acid line above 80 Hz; at 118–128 BPM, muddiness between low-end elements kills the percussive clarity acid requires.