How it works
An 85 BPM metronome runs one beat above the slowest waltz in the World DanceSport Federation's rules: 28 to 30 bars a minute, which the 3/4 bar in Wikipedia's Ballroom dance list makes 84 to 90 beats, by our sum.
Read the full guide
Start
Tap the pad, or press Space, and 85 starts in bars of four, not a waltz's three, with the first click higher. A second tap stops it.
Change the tempo
Tap the number under the pad and type another: 170 is this tempo in double time. One press of minus gives 84 and three of plus 88, the notches either side on the most common wind-up scale in Wikipedia's Metronome article.
Questions and answers
Is 85 BPM andante or maestoso?
Andante, in Wikipedia's list of tempo markings (56 to 108), with Andantino and Andante moderato from 80. Maestoso, majestically, has no figures in that list: a Japanese metronome pictured in German Wikipedia prints it over 84 to 92. The list calls its numbers very rough.
Why do metronome dials name 85 differently?
Makers placed the words differently. In German Wikipedia's Tempo article a 20th-century German dial prints Andante over 76 to 108, and a 19th-century French one Larghetto over 70 to 98, a word the English list ends at 66. The article calls such bands approximate hints.
Can this 85 BPM metronome play finger snaps or a kick drum?
No: this page has one click. This site's drum metronome plays kick, snare and hi-hat; type 85 there and its eighth notes come 170 to the minute, by our sum. The sounds page has a wood block and a clave, but no finger snap.
How long is a sixteenth note at 85 BPM?
176.5 ms, a quarter of the beat length printed under the pad. An eighth note lasts 352.9 ms, a dotted eighth 529.4 ms and each note of an eighth-note triplet 235.3 ms: our own divisions, rounded to a tenth of a millisecond.
Why can't I hear the metronome?
On a phone, check the ring switch, then the volume slider, then whether Bluetooth headphones have taken the sound. The bar can be read in silence too: four dots light in turn, and the first is the largest.