Depeche Mode · Music for the Masses
Behind the Wheel
Behind the Wheel is in D minor at 125.1 beats per minute.
Tempo
125 BPM · Allegromedian of 181 analyses · 125–125.1 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- D minor1 flat · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 93%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 181people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 479.6milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 4.18dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.902Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.459Essentia's danceability, 0–3
Source: AcousticBrainz, dump of 2022-06-23 (CC0) · MusicBrainz core data, 2026-09-17 (CC0) · how each number is measured. Measured up to 23.06.2022 — AcousticBrainz stopped collecting in 2022, so nothing released after that date is here.
What the numbers say
181 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 93% — put it in D minor, a key signature of 1 flat. The tempo printed above is the median of the 181 readings; 97% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 125.1 BPM one beat lasts 479.6 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 119.9 ms and a dotted eighth 359.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 62.6 BPM, counted twice as fast 250.2. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 434.2 Hz, which is 23 cents below concert A at 440 Hz — the sort of drift a tape machine or a slightly different mastering leaves behind. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.
The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 4.18 dB: that is how far the level wanders from its own average, so a small number means a loud, flat master and a large one means a recording that still breathes. Its average loudness is 0.902 on Essentia's 0-to-1 scale, which is not decibels and is not comparable to a streaming service's number.
10 other recordings here are in D minor; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.
Beats per bar are not in this dataset. AcousticBrainz's analysis reports a tempo, a key and a loudness, and no time signature at all, so this page does not print one — a 4/4 here would be a guess dressed as a measurement.
Keys that fit with D minor
Each of these differs from D minor by at most one accidental, or shares its tonic. That is the whole of what a mixing wheel encodes; here the relations are named instead of numbered.
Delay times at 125 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 1918.5 | 0.52 |
| Half note | 2 | 959.2 | 1.04 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 719.4 | 1.39 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 479.6 | 2.09 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 319.7 | 3.13 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 359.7 | 2.78 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 239.8 | 4.17 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 159.9 | 6.26 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 179.9 | 5.56 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 119.9 | 8.34 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 79.9 | 12.51 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 60 | 16.68 |
Half time 62.6 BPM · double time 250.2 BPM. Every row is one beat (479.6 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- Lay Me DownAviciiD minor125BPM
- Rock That BodyThe Black Eyed PeasD minor125BPM
- Hung UpMadonnaD minor125BPM
- Mozart’s HouseClean Bandit feat. Love SsegaD minor125BPM
- Big LoveFleetwood MacD minor125BPM
- Black Magic WomanSantanaD minor125BPM
- Black Magic Woman / Gypsy QueenSantanaD minor125BPM
- AssassinMuseD minor126BPM
- You Make It RoughChromeoD minor126BPM
- Heroes (We Could Be)Alesso feat. Tove LoD minor126BPM
Recordings in D minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 125 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in D minorAll songs at 125 BPMD minor at 120–129 BPMDepeche Mode
MusicBrainz collapses 83 recording ids into this one. Recording id a395d484-58db-4014-a194-9cf5ebdcd3ba.