Danny Elfman · Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
What’s This?
What’s This? is in F minor at 162.9 beats per minute.
Tempo
163 BPM · Vivacemedian of 128 analyses · 162.6–162.9 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- F minor4 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 100%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 128people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 368.3milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 443.3Hz · +13 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 6.36dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.057Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 0.977Essentia'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
128 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 100% — put it in F minor, a key signature of 4 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 128 readings; 100% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 162.9 BPM one beat lasts 368.3 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 92.1 ms and a dotted eighth 276.2 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 81.5 BPM, counted twice as fast 325.8. A score would mark that Vivace, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 443.3 Hz, which is 13 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 6.36 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 0.057 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 F 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 F minor
Each of these differs from F 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 163 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 1473.3 | 0.68 |
| Half note | 2 | 736.6 | 1.36 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 552.5 | 1.81 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 368.3 | 2.72 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 245.5 | 4.07 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 276.2 | 3.62 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 184.2 | 5.43 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 122.8 | 8.15 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 138.1 | 7.24 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 92.1 | 10.86 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 61.4 | 16.29 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 46 | 21.72 |
Half time 81.5 BPM · double time 325.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (368.3 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- Yes / Chinese Sleep ChantColdplayF minor162BPM
- Royal PursuitTim DaviesF minor162BPM
- Sing for the MomentEminemF minor164BPM
- HappyPharrell WilliamsF minor162BPM
- Mack the KnifeMichael BubléF minor164BPM
- Walk on WaterNeil DiamondF minor165BPM
- Edge of the WorldEmeryF minor165BPM
- BrianstormArctic MonkeysF minor165BPM
- Favorite SongChance the Rapper feat. Childish GambinoF minor156BPM
- Only an Act of True LoveTim DaviesF minor155BPM
Recordings in F minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 163 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in F minorAll songs at 163 BPMF minor at 160–169 BPM
MusicBrainz collapses 4 recording ids into this one. Recording id c0ed0962-53ad-48d0-a140-86b3c5692510.