Nine Inch Nails · Pretty Hate Machine
Down in It
Down in It is in C major at 104 beats per minute.
Tempo
104 BPM · Andantemedian of 139 analyses · 104–104.1 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- C majorno sharps and no flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 75%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 139people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 576.9milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 447.2Hz · +28 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 2.59dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.95Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.53Essentia'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
139 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. A bare majority of them — 75% — put it in C major, a key signature of no sharps and no flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 139 readings; 99% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 104 BPM one beat lasts 576.9 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 144.2 ms and a dotted eighth 432.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 52 BPM, counted twice as fast 208. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 447.2 Hz, which is 28 cents above 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 2.59 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 0.95 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 C major; 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 C major
Each of these differs from C major 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 104 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 2307.7 | 0.43 |
| Half note | 2 | 1153.8 | 0.87 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 865.4 | 1.16 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 576.9 | 1.73 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 384.6 | 2.6 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 432.7 | 2.31 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 288.5 | 3.47 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 192.3 | 5.2 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 216.3 | 4.62 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 144.2 | 6.93 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 96.2 | 10.4 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 72.1 | 13.87 |
Half time 52 BPM · double time 208 BPM. Every row is one beat (576.9 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- Sweetest DevotionAdeleC major104BPM
- Last NiteThe StrokesC major104BPM
- Femme FataleThe Velvet Underground & NicoC major104BPM
- Who's That GirlMadonnaC major104BPM
- Ruby TuesdayThe Rolling StonesC major104BPM
- Cluster OnePink FloydC major103BPM
- AeroplaneBjörkC major105BPM
- My GirlThe TemptationsC major105BPM
- CeciliaSimon & GarfunkelC major103BPM
- Magic ManHeartC major105BPM
Recordings in C major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 104 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in C majorAll songs at 104 BPMC major at 100–109 BPMNine Inch Nails
MusicBrainz collapses 129 recording ids into this one. Recording id 76c45b5a-a3ad-4612-9940-f1a9f55526cf.