How do I know when my track is at the right tempo?

The quick answer to this is that you’ll know because it’ll sound right, but then you could also argue that there’s a little more to it than that.

To a point, it depends on whether you want to give listeners and DJs

what they’re expecting or surprise them a little bit. It should go without saying that, if you’re working on a club track, the tempo needs to be reasonably brisk, but house tunes can be anywhere between around 118 and 135bpm, which is a pretty broad spectrum. Having the pace relatively high can certainly help to keep the energy levels up, but slowing things down a notch can sometimes help you to find that elusive groove, particularly when the music is syncopated.

Of course, other genres really do require you to take the brakes off a bit more – most drum & bass tracks start at around 160bpm – but if you’re making hip-hop you can end up dipping below 100bpm. Another option is to throw in a half- or doubletime section, or you could even try gradually increasing or decreasing the tempo.

One thing we’d advise against is sticking to the same tempo all the time. You’ll probably end up finding a ‘BPM ballpark’ that you frequently return to, but switching things up or down from time to time will be creatively beneficial. Of course, you also have the option of varying time signatures, too, but that’s a whole other story…