Effects & processing
Delay
Delay repeats a sound after a set time. On a DJ mixer that time is locked to the detected tempo, so the setting is a beat division rather than a number of milliseconds and the repeats land on the grid.
Measured in our catalog
At 128 BPM — the catalog's busiest tempo, 35,264 tracks — one beat of delay is 469 ms, a half-beat 234 ms, and a full bar 1,875 ms.
Those numbers are not settings, they are what the setting works out to — which is the whole reason beat divisions exist. The same 1/2-beat repeat is 234 ms at 128 and 242 ms at 124, the next busiest tempo, and a unit reading the tempo does that conversion for you on every record. A delay dialled in milliseconds is correct at exactly one tempo.
One beat at 128 BPM
1,875 ms
One bar at the same tempo
One beat at 124 BPM
35,264
Tracks at 128 BPM
| Division | At 128 BPM | At 124 BPM |
|---|---|---|
| 1/4 beat | 117 ms | 121 ms |
| 1/2 beat | 234 ms | 242 ms |
| 1 beat | 469 ms | 484 ms |
| 2 beats | 938 ms | 968 ms |
| 1 bar | 1,875 ms | 1,935 ms |
Measured on 11 August 2026 across public tracks with a detected BPM, for the tempo counts; the millisecond figures are the arithmetic of 60,000 ÷ BPM. Method: how we correct half-time BPM detection.
Why it matters
Delay is the effect that most rewards knowing the tempo. Set in beat divisions it disappears into the record — a half-beat repeat reads as part of the groove rather than as an effect — and set to a fixed time it fights the track from the first repeat.
It is also the difference between an exit that sounds intentional and one that sounds like a mistake. Killing the outgoing record while a beat-locked delay is running leaves repeats that decay in time, which is the sound every DJ recognises as the end of something.
Frequently asked
How do you set delay time for DJing?+
In beat divisions, not milliseconds. A mixer reading the tempo converts a 1/2-beat setting into the right time on every record, and that same setting stays musical when you change track.
What delay division should I use?+
A half-beat or a full beat for something that sits inside the groove, and a bar for an exit tail. Shorter divisions than a quarter-beat stop reading as repeats and start reading as texture.
What is the difference between delay and reverb?+
Delay repeats the sound at a countable interval; reverb blurs it into hundreds of reflections you cannot count. Delay stays rhythmic, reverb stops being rhythmic almost immediately.
Related terms
Beat FX
Beat FX are the effects section on a DJ mixer that locks its timing to the detected tempo. Every delay, echo, roll and gate is set in beat divisions rather than in milliseconds, so one setting stays musical across records.
Echo out
An echo out ends a record by feeding its last bars into a delay and pulling the channel down, so the track dissolves into repeats instead of stopping.
Tape echo
Tape echo is a delay modelled on a tape machine: each repeat comes back darker, slightly unstable in pitch and a little saturated. It degrades as it repeats rather than copying cleanly.
Ping-pong delay
A ping-pong delay alternates its repeats between the left and right channels, so each echo bounces across the stereo field instead of stacking in the middle where the record already is.
Explore: Beats-to-time calculator · Mixing guides · Beat FX · All DJ terms