Time and tempo

Any effect parameter that measures time (time=, interval=, first=, duration=, mean=, window=, decay=, and whatever future effects add) accepts the same two spellings, and exactly one of them per node: a duration string, or beats= against the tempo. Each effect’s page names its time properties.

Durations

A number with an ms or s suffix, as a string:

delay time="250ms"
echo repeats=3 time="1.5s" decay=0.6

Decimals are fine ("0.5s", "62.5ms"); signs and exponents are not. The value must be positive.

Beats

A bare number of beats, resolved against the config’s tempo:

tempo 96

echo repeats=4 beats=0.5 decay=0.7      // eighth notes at 96 bpm

One beat lasts 60 / bpm seconds, so at tempo 96 a beat is 625ms and beats=0.5 is 312.5ms. Any positive value works: beats=0.25 for sixteenths, beats=1.5 for a dotted quarter, beats=3 for a slow pulse.

The tempo node

tempo 120

Beats per minute, 20..=400, default 120. It exists only to resolve beats= values; if every time in the config is a duration, the tempo changes nothing.

Writing times in beats keeps a whole config in one musical grid: change the tempo line and every beats= effect shifts together, which is especially satisfying while editing live.

Mixing the two spellings in one node is an error:

delay time="250ms" beats=0.5

Times are resolved when the graph is built, not per event, so a tempo edit applies the same way any other live edit does.