Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’

438 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 85% — put it in A major, a key signature of 3 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 438 readings; 98% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 122.2 BPM one beat lasts 491 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 122.7 ms and a dotted eighth 368.2 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 61.1 BPM, counted twice as fast 244.4. 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 3.15 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 0.951 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 A major; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.