Rage Against the Machine · The Battle of Los Angeles
Calm Like a Bomb
Calm Like a Bomb is in B minor at 148.8 beats per minute.
Tempo
149 BPM · Allegromedian of 171 analyses · 148.8–149.3 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- B minor2 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 93%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 171people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 403.2milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 434.2Hz · -23 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 2.59dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.894Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.158Essentia'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
171 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 93% — put it in B minor, a key signature of 2 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 171 readings; 98% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 148.8 BPM one beat lasts 403.2 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 100.8 ms and a dotted eighth 302.4 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 74.4 BPM, counted twice as fast 297.6. 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 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 0.894 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 B 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 B minor
Each of these differs from B 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 149 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 1612.9 | 0.62 |
| Half note | 2 | 806.5 | 1.24 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 604.8 | 1.65 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 403.2 | 2.48 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 268.8 | 3.72 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 302.4 | 3.31 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 201.6 | 4.96 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 134.4 | 7.44 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 151.2 | 6.61 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 100.8 | 9.92 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 67.2 | 14.88 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 50.4 | 19.84 |
Half time 74.4 BPM · double time 297.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (403.2 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- MantraToolB minor150BPM
- WHEN I WAS OLDERBillie EilishB minor150BPM
- Hotel CaliforniaEaglesB minor147BPM
- SinnermanNina SimoneB minor147BPM
- Isn’t It MidnightFleetwood MacB minor145BPM
- VökuróBjörkB minor144BPM
- Come Out and PlayOffspringB minor156BPM
- Lucifer SamPink FloydB minor141BPM
- Dollars and CentsRadioheadB minor139BPM
- SabrosaBeastie BoysB minor162BPM
Recordings in B minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 149 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in B minorAll songs at 149 BPMB minor at 140–149 BPMRage Against the Machine
MusicBrainz collapses 20 recording ids into this one. Recording id 82c1b8e7-d28b-4c1d-8d50-25ad57215a2e.