MagicBPM

Online metronome · Free · No sign-up

160 BPM metronome.

Genuinely fast. 160 BPM drives punk, hardcore and bluegrass, and it is the exact tempo footwork and juke are built on. Counted in half time it is a comfortable 80.

Beats per minute

160

Press Space to start and stop · ↑ ↓ to nudge off 160 · or

Get the metronome on your phone Not sure of the tempo? Tap it →

The tempo

What 160 BPM feels like.

At 160 BPM a beat lasts 0.375 seconds and a bar of 4/4 goes by in a second and a half. Playing straight sixteenths here is a real technical demand, which is part of why the tempo defines its genres: bluegrass picking and hardcore downstrokes are both partly a statement about being able to hold it.

Marking
Vivace
156 to 176 BPM
One beat
0.375 sec
One 4/4 bar
1.500 sec
Bars in 3 min
120

Where you hear it

Music that sits at 160 BPM.

Counted in half time, this is the same music as 80 BPM: the click marks beats one and three instead of all four. If a part at 160 feels frantic, try the half-time click and play across it.

Wondering whether a particular track is 160 BPM? Tap along with it and compare, or let the MagicBPM app listen and tell you.

Practice note: Do not start here. Get the part clean at 80 with the click on every beat, then at 120, and only then at 160. Jumping straight to tempo teaches the mistakes as well as the notes.

Presets

Other common tempos

Every one opens the metronome already running at that BPM.

Need something in between? The full metronome covers 40 to 220 BPM.

MagicBPM for iPhone and Android

Take 160 BPM with you.

The app pairs the same metronome with a real-time BPM detector that hears the music around you, so you can lift a tempo off a track and practice to it straight away.

  • Subdivisions: practice against eighths, triplets or sixteenths, with the in-between clicks tucked under the beat
  • Compound time that counts properly: 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 group in threes, and 7/8 lets you pick 2+2+3 or 3+2+2
  • Pick your click: acoustic out of the box, with woodblock, claves, cowbell and more sound packs in Pro
  • Haptics on every beat, with a firmer pulse on the downbeat
  • Keeps clicking even when your phone is silenced
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Good to know

160 BPM questions

What does 160 BPM sound like?

Quick and insistent, under 0.4 seconds a beat. A beat lands every 0.375 seconds, so one bar of 4/4 lasts 1.500 seconds and a three-minute song runs to about 120 bars. Press Play above to hear it.

Is 160 BPM fast or slow?

160 BPM is fast. It is the low end of Vivace, twice the speed of 80 BPM, and quick enough that sixteenth notes become a technique problem.

What kind of music is 160 BPM?

Punk, hardcore and thrash; Bluegrass and old-time fiddle tunes; Footwork and juke, which are built at 160 exactly. The list is a guide rather than a rule: tempo varies within every genre.

Is 160 BPM the same as 80 BPM?

Counted in half time, 160 BPM is 80 BPM, with the click marking beats one and three instead of every beat. Both readings describe the same music, which is why two people, or two apps, can give different answers for one song and both be right.

How do I set a metronome to 160 BPM?

This page opens already set to 160 BPM, so press Play or hit the spacebar. To move off it, drag the slider, type a number into the BPM box, or use the arrow keys to nudge a beat at a time.

Measuring instead of setting? Use the tap tempo tool to find a song’s BPM.