Aretha Franklin · Spirit in the Dark

When the Battle Is Over

When the Battle Is Over is in B flat minor at 120.2 beats per minute.

Tempo

120 BPM · Allegromedian of 146 analyses · 120.1–120.5 across the middle eight tenths

Key: B♭ minor5 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 84%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 146people who ran the extractor
One beat: 499.2milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 439Hz · -4 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 4.28dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.834Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.089Essentia'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

146 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 84% — put it in B flat minor, a key signature of 5 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 146 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 120.2 BPM one beat lasts 499.2 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 124.8 ms and a dotted eighth 374.4 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 60.1 BPM, counted twice as fast 240.4. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 439 Hz, which is 4 cents below concert A at 440 Hz — close enough to standard that a tuner would not argue. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 4.28 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 0.834 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 flat 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 120 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	1996.7	0.5
Half note	2	998.3	1
Dotted quarter	1.5	748.8	1.34
Quarter note (one beat)	1	499.2	2
Quarter triplet	0.667	332.8	3.01
Dotted eighth	0.75	374.4	2.67
Eighth note	0.5	249.6	4.01
Eighth triplet	0.333	166.4	6.01
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	187.2	5.34
Sixteenth note	0.25	124.8	8.01
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	83.2	12.02
Thirty-second note	0.125	62.4	16.03

Half time 60.1 BPM · double time 240.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (499.2 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in B flat minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 120 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in B flat minor All songs at 120 BPM B♭ minor at 120–129 BPM Aretha Franklin

MusicBrainz collapses 1 recording id into this one. Recording id 1f8388d2-2c93-4672-928d-ff8186b62c7c.