Tempo & rhythm
Double-time
Double-time is the mirror of half-time: a groove counted at one tempo and felt at twice the rate. A 70 BPM beat played as 140 is the same record, counted differently, and mixes on the same grid.
Measured in our catalog
The octave is lopsided in both directions: 70 BPM holds 2,945 tracks against 18,538 at 140, while 87 holds 11,352 against 173 at 174.
Where the inventory sits tells you which pulse the analyser heard for that genre, not which tempo the music is at. The bass-music octave is stocked at the top; the drum & bass octave is stocked at the bottom.
| Low | Tracks | High | Tracks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 70 BPM | 2,945 | 140 BPM | 18,538 |
| 87 BPM | 11,352 | 174 BPM | 173 |
| 65 BPM | 1,193 | 130 BPM | 24,430 |
| 75 BPM | 1,486 | 150 BPM | 9,311 |
| 60 BPM | 6 | 120 BPM | 21,263 |
Measured on 11 August 2026 across public tracks with a detected BPM, as stored. Method: how we correct half-time BPM detection.
Why it matters
The octave is the widest legal move in beatmatching. Two tracks an exact factor of two apart share every downbeat, so you can drop a 140 BPM track over a 70 BPM one without touching a pitch fader — the trick behind most half-time mashups.
It also means your library is quietly split in two. The same music can be filed at either end of an octave depending on which pulse the analyser heard, and searching one tempo finds none of the other.
Frequently asked
What is double-time in DJing?+
Playing or feeling a track at twice its counted tempo. The beats fall in the same places either way, which is why an octave jump is the one large tempo change that needs no pitch adjustment.
Can you mix 140 BPM into 70 BPM?+
Yes, and cleanly — they are the same grid. What changes is the feel: the incoming track arrives at twice the perceived pace even though nothing about the beat has moved.
Why do the same tracks appear at two different BPMs?+
Because tempo detection picks a pulse, and for genres with a strong half-time backbeat it often picks the slower one. The same release can be filed at 87 by one tool and 174 by another.
Related terms
Half-time
Half-time is a groove that feels half as fast as it counts — the snare lands every other bar instead of every other beat. Drum & bass written at 174 BPM is felt, and often detected, at 87.
BPM
BPM — beats per minute — counts how many beats land in sixty seconds. It is the first number a DJ checks, because two tracks have to agree on tempo before anything else about them matters.
Phrase
A phrase is a block of bars a track is built from, usually 8, 16 or 32. Electronic music changes at phrase boundaries, so a mix that starts on one keeps both tracks structurally in step.
Explore: Half-time / double-time calculator · 140 BPM tracks · All DJ terms