Sometimes it’s more convenient to think about musical time in "beats per minute" (BPM) instead of milliseconds. (Beats per minute is also a much better unit to use when you want to express an accelerando or decelerando.) Here are two easy ways to express timing in terms of beats per minute.
One of the most intriguing features of the transport object is that there can be multiple independent transports in action at the same time. If a transport object has not had its name attribute set, it refers to the one global transport. However, you can create an independent transport by giving the transport object a name (i.e., by setting its name attribute to some name of your choice).
In the tempo object, the first argument specifies the initial quarter-note tempo in quarter-notes per minute. You can also specify the tempo with a number in the second inlet, or with a tempo message in the first inlet. The second and third arguments (and the third and fourth inlets) allow you to specify the numerator and denominator (multiplier and divisor) of the rhythmic value that the object will produce, relative to a whole note.