I was just curious if people had a favorite BPM to work in and to list why that BPM is used and for what style.
For example I like to use 76 or 87 BPM when working in triplets and using Shuffle. Percussion clicks together where your shuffle of 16ths and triplets lay on top of one another in a 4/4 sequence. You can dial the shuffle in just right to get them to match. I’m curious too hear from anyone else who has insight to their BPM usage .
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Since I make what comes down to dance music most of the time genre conventions play a big roll. That being said, I’ve always had this weird obsession with 127BPM. I just seem to be able to get some nice, funky, fun beats going at that speed. Been doing a lot of four to the floor stuff. It has been pretty hot and humid this summer so I think those slower, but relentless grooves somehow match the weather perfectly!
Like you, what I can do with swing/shuffle etc. intuitively has much to do with what speed I choose to work with. For whatever reason I rarely go above 140BPM these days, probably because I’m getting a little older and don’t want to dance to fast music anymore!
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143 is my favourite for techno. I cannot remember what the minimum tempo and scale it was, but it works great for ambient work (that’s according to my Monomachine experience). 
I haven’t really paid much attention to the BPM I use. But this thread has got me wanting to create a list of different bpms I like to use. I feel I should start incorporating at least three different bpms per track in fluxuation. I make pop-weird music.
I like 111 or 123. These numbers really fit the OP-1.
69 is sexy as hell.
And 168 when I’m too drunk to funk.
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I appreciate your contributions that I come across. I’ll definitely experiment with those in OT arranger. Could be cool, especially the dramatic shift from the sexy time of 69 to 168
80/160
85/170
111
118
128
133.33 (for locked grooves)
140
sometimes other values, but these are most common ATM
I was just going to ask this question but instead I’ll revive this piece of history!
So what’s everyone’s favourite BPM, and why? If you answered here already, is it still the same 7 years later? 
I figure there must be some science out there but I find that the BPM’s that click with us are kind of inherent, different people seem to have different rhythms.
I work in a number of BPM’s but seem to always jive more with '8’s, i.e. 108, 118, 128 - sometimes feels like beatsyncing with your own mind.
Anything above 180
None of your business
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Last stuff I liked to play around involved quite some tempo subdivision changes (?) by 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 – and the other way around 2/1, 3/2 or 4/3.
I gravitated to 144 BPM, because it scales cleanly without any decimal points. Still sooomewhat arbitrary though, could’ve also used 132 BPM or 156 BPM.
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Usually double whatever the track is, though sometimes half and occasionally x4. Always round numbers.
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There’s research that suggests that as humans we gravitate towards 100bpm as a baseline (people had to listen to a metronome and anticipate the next click…if the bpm was below 100bpm, people would rush the next click, if it were above 100bpm people would be late with it…interesting stuff).
The other thing to consider is that, bpm and tempo aren’t quite the same…what I mean is, 80bpm and 160bpm can be the same tempo, just interpreted at different subdivisions (1/4 vs 1/8)…so I’ve heard percussionists talk about there only being a fairly limited number of tempos to play in the range of 30-300 bpm (I think “66” is the number of unique tempos within that range lol)
All that said, when I make music, I tend to gravitate towards 87-96bpm for bouncy stuff (I grew up listening to hip hop, so no surprise there) and for electronic stuff I tend towards the 108-118bpm range…I find that fast enough to create some movement forward but still chill enough to not feel rushed.
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My Bitwig template is set at 32BPM. I figured I like really slow stuff and a lot of space for details but it also scales up nicely to 96BPM (uptempo hip hop) and 128BPM (techno) if required. But often I ignore the Bitwig project info and transport and just use my ears when using the Grid so it could be any old tempo really.
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140pbm
Techno
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Gothic Elektronica stuff (often based on a 4 to the floor):
96 (the slow things)
112
123 (easy to type)
130
140
but recently I discovered cyberpunk stuff and enclosed it to my heart which often leads to:
100 or 110
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Where’s this diagram from? Google didn’t quite spit out the right things with “bpm tempo spiral” keywords
74, 93, 111, 119 and 138. I don’t know.
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Andy Weatherall said 105 was the most cosmic so that and 128 and 174. My tapeecho is 100 at max speed so thats also popular.
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108, 114, 120, 126, 132, 138, 144 bpm.
why: respectively 1.8, 1.9, 2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 Hz per beat.
easy to calculate for old/dumb gear that does not have automatic beat sync.
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The answer to all of life’s hardest questions
Good point! And thanks for the info 