Tempo is the first thing that decides whether a loop can go into a track at all. Key can be shifted and a sound can be swapped, but a loop cut at the wrong tempo for a genre either gets stretched until it smears or never gets used. So it helps to know where each style usually sits before you make a loop for someone else to finish, or go looking for one to build on.
The ranges below are conventions, not rules. They show where most records in each style land, checked against published tempo charts. Plenty of great records sit outside them, and nothing on ColabLoop stops you tagging a 150 BPM loop as hip-hop.
The cheat sheet
Each row links to that genre's page, where the loops live. The count beside each range is how many are live on ColabLoop right now.
| Genre | Usual tempo |
|---|---|
| Trap Most sits near 140, programmed half-time so it feels like 65–80. | 130–160 BPM 4 loops live |
| Drill UK drill lives around 140–144; sliding 808s and a half-time bounce. | 138–150 BPM 1 loop live |
| Hip-Hop The broad middle of rap. Some is double-time over the same grid. | 80–100 BPM 6 loops live |
| R&B Slow jams at the bottom, bounce and two-step toward the top. | 60–100 BPM 1 loop live |
| Boom Bap Swung drums; 90 is the classic head-nod. | 84–98 BPM 2 loops live |
| Lo-Fi Unhurried and swung, often with the drums pulled behind the beat. | 70–90 BPM 2 loops live |
| Melodic A style, not a tempo. Follows the genre it sits in. | No single tempo 4 loops live |
| Old School Break-driven; the funk and soul it samples sets the pace. | 90–110 BPM 2 loops live |
| Afrobeats Many records sit at 105–110, percussion first. | 100–115 BPM 1 loop live |
| Pop Wide; most chart pop lands between 100 and 125. | 95–130 BPM 1 loop live |
| Dancehall Riddims built on the one-drop and its descendants. | 90–110 BPM 1 loop live |
| Experimental By definition, no house tempo. | No single tempo 2 loops live |
| Reggaeton The dembow pattern, centred around 95. | 88–100 BPM No loops yet |
| House Four to the floor; deep house at the low end, most near 124. | 118–130 BPM No loops yet |
| Rock Played, so it drifts; loops are usually cut to a steady grid. | 100–140 BPM No loops yet |
| Classical Tempo is a marking, not a grid; loops tend to sit here. | 60–100 BPM 1 loop live |
| Jazz The widest range here: ballads to bebop. Swing sits in the middle. | 80–180 BPM No loops yet |
| Funk Rhythm-section music; the pocket matters more than the number. | 95–115 BPM 1 loop live |
| World Many scenes, many tempos. Follows the tradition it comes from. | No single tempo No loops yet |
| West Coast G-funk bounce, usually around 90–95. | 85–100 BPM 1 loop live |
| East Coast Sample-led and drum-forward, close to boom bap's pace. | 85–95 BPM No loops yet |
| Club Jersey and Baltimore club sit around 130–145. | 125–145 BPM No loops yet |
| Underground A stance, not a tempo. Follows the genre it sits in. | No single tempo 1 loop live |
| Freestyle Long, open loops at a pace that leaves room to rap. | 85–100 BPM No loops yet |
Why a trap loop at 140 feels like 70
Most trap, drill and a lot of modern hip-hop is programmed half-time. The grid runs at 140 and the hi-hats roll at that speed, but the snare lands on beat three instead of two and four. So the body hears one backbeat per bar, and the track feels like it moves at 70.
This matters for tagging. A loop that sounds slow and heavy may be 140 BPM on the grid, and that is the number that goes on it. A producer filtering for trap loops is searching around 140, not around 70. The same goes the other way: a 70 BPM loop can sit in a 140 BPM session at half speed, bar for bar.
Choosing a tempo for a loop someone else will finish
A loop on ColabLoop is an invitation for another producer to build a track on it. A few habits make that easier for them:
- Stay inside the genre's usual range unless going outside it is the point. A loop at an unusual tempo is harder to find and harder to drop into a session that is already running.
- Use a whole number. A loop at 139.87 BPM drifts against every grid it meets. Set the project tempo before you record, not after.
- Cut on bar lines. Four, eight or sixteen bars, starting on the downbeat, so it loops without a click or a gap.
- Put the tempo in the filename. Something like
Dark Piano 142 bpm - YourTag.wav. ColabLoop reads the tempo straight out of a filename like that when you upload, and so does anybody who downloads it later.
Changing the tempo of someone else's loop
Small tempo changes usually survive time-stretching. Big ones start to smear the transients first: drums soften and the attack of a piano or a pluck blurs. If a loop is far from the tempo you want, look at half or double time before you stretch it. A 75 BPM soul loop can play at 150 without being stretched at all.
When a loop is close but not exact, it is worth asking the producer who made it. On ColabLoop the owner of a loop is one question away, and if they still have the project they can publish a version at the tempo you need as a loop of its own.
Tempo and key travel together
A loop that fits the tempo but clashes with the key is no closer to being usable. When you browse, set the tempo range first, then the key. The key filter on the loops page can also include keys that are compatible with yours, not only exact matches. The compatible keys guide explains which keys those are, and why.
Find loops by tempo
Every loop's page shows its tempo, key and length next to the player, and listening is free, with no account. Start from a genre in the table above, or open the loops page and set a BPM range. If a loop fits, asking its producer to build on it with you is free too.
Tempo ranges checked on 25 September 2026 against Chosic's BPM-by-genre list, SampleFocus's tempo guide, Digital DJ Pool's BPM guide and Wikipedia on Jersey club. Where they disagree, the table gives the range most of them share.