Free tool · no account needed
130 BPM Metronome
A metronome running at 130 beats per minute — past the comfort of 120 and into the territory where dance music, techno and faster rock live.
130 BPM 461.5 ms per beat Allegro
Stopped · Space to start
Made with Drumloop AI — describe a beat and hear it in seconds.
Generate drum loops with Drumloop AIWhat 130 BPM is for
One hundred and thirty beats per minute is where music stops being mid-tempo. The step up from 120 sounds small on paper but changes the character noticeably: at 130 a four-on-the-floor kick pattern reads as club music rather than pop, and a rock backbeat starts to feel urgent rather than steady.
It is the lower boundary of techno and the upper boundary of house, which means a lot of the electronic music that sits between those genres lands here. Trance, tech house and the faster end of disco all use it. Outside dance music, 130 is a common punk and pop-punk tempo, where straight eighths on the hi-hat at this speed produce the characteristic drive without needing sixteenth-note detail.
For drummers this tempo is a useful diagnostic. At 130 BPM, single-stroke sixteenths run at about 8.7 notes per second, which is around the point where wrist-only technique stops being enough and finger control has to take over. If your sixteenths are even at 110 and falling apart at 130, the problem is technique rather than speed, and slowing back down to fix the motion will get you further than pushing through.
Where 130 BPM shows up
| Use | Detail |
|---|---|
| Techno | The genre's lower boundary; drier and more driving than house. |
| Pop-punk | Straight eighths at this speed give the style its urgency. |
| Tech house | Sits between house and techno, often exactly here. |
| Technique threshold | Where wrist-only sixteenth notes stop being sustainable. |
Note lengths at 130 BPM
Useful when you are setting a tempo-synced delay, an LFO rate or an envelope release at this tempo. The full calculator covers every note value including dotted and triplet variants.
| Note | Milliseconds | Per second |
|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 1846.2 | 0.54 |
| Half note | 923.1 | 1.08 |
| Quarter note (beat) | 461.5 | 2.17 |
| Eighth note | 230.8 | 4.33 |
| Sixteenth note | 115.4 | 8.67 |
Genres that sit near 130 BPM
If you are writing at this tempo, these are the styles that live there naturally. Each one with a matching library links to free royalty-free loops.
| Genre | Range | Typical | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trap | 130–150 | 140 | Written at 140 but felt at 70 — the halftime illusion. |
| Rock | 110–140 | 120 | Straight eighths, backbeat on 2 and 4. |
| Jazz (swing) | 120–200 | 140 | Counted in swung eighths on the ride. |
| House | 120–130 | 125 | Four-on-the-floor; 128 is the club standard. |
| Techno | 125–150 | 135 | Faster and drier than house, with off-beat hats. |
| Dubstep | 138–142 | 140 | Written at 140 with the snare landing on beat 3. |
| Drill | 138–145 | 140 | Sliding 808s over a halftime feel. |
| Pop | 100–130 | 120 | Radio pop clusters tightly around 120. |
Frequently asked questions
Is 130 BPM house or techno?
Both use it, and it is roughly the boundary between them. House typically runs 120–128 and techno 130–150, so 130 is where one hands over to the other. Tech house, which borrows from both, sits here very often.
Why do my sixteenth notes fall apart above 130 BPM?
Because sixteenths at 130 BPM arrive about every 115 milliseconds, which is faster than most players can sustain using wrist motion alone. The fix is technique rather than effort: let the fingers control the rebound and keep the wrist relaxed. Slow the tempo back to where the motion is clean, then use the speed trainer to climb in small steps.
Can I get drum loops at 130 BPM?
Yes. Drumloop AI generates original, royalty-free drum loops at exactly 130 BPM from a plain-English description. There is also a free 130 BPM drum loop library you can browse right now.
More free music tools
Need a groove at 130 BPM?
Describe the beat in your head and Drumloop AI generates it — original, royalty-free, at exactly 130 BPM.