Rhythm & Subdivision
Exact durations for tuplets, nested tuplets, and polyrhythms.
What it calculates
Three related problems sit behind most tuplet questions: what is the duration of each note in a 7:4 group of sixteenths at 92 BPM; what happens when you nest a 3:2 inside a 5:4; and what actually falls where when two pulse streams share a bar. This module answers all three exactly — no rounding — and lets you hear each configuration through a click-track-quality audio player.
Three modes
- Simple tuplets — pick a tuplet ratio (N:D), a base note value, and a tempo. Get per-note duration, total group duration, and equivalent groupings in other note values.
- Nested tuplets — stack layers (e.g. 5:4 containing 3:2). The calculator walks the nest exactly and warns when nesting passes 3 layers deep, which is the point where most players stop reading reliably.
- Polyrhythm (2 streams) — for quick 3:4, 5:7, 2:3 questions within a single bar. For more than two streams or multi-bar cycles, use Polyrhythm Visualizer.
Inputs
- Tuplet ratio — N in the time of D, for however many layers you need.
- Base note value — whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, thirty-second; dotted variants.
- Tempo — BPM referenced to the quarter note.
- Loop and reference click — enable a quarter-note reference pulse underneath the subdivision for rehearsal.
Outputs
- Per-note duration — in milliseconds, exact.
- Total group duration — in ms.
- Equivalent groupings — the same total duration expressed in other note values (useful for renotation).
- Audio playback — hear the subdivision with configurable click frequencies and accents.
When to use it
Writing a quintuplet passage at an unusual tempo and you need to know whether a player can physically execute 5 sixteenths at 96 BPM (answer: yes, with practice). Nesting a 3:2 inside a 7:4 and wanting to hear the result before committing it to parts. Converting between equivalent notations — is it a 7:4 of sixteenths or a 7:8 of eighths? Both describe the same durations but one reads better in context.