Death Cab for Cutie · Something About Airplanes
President of What?
President of What? is in E minor at 95.7 beats per minute.
Tempo
96 BPM · Andantemedian of 128 analyses · 95.7–95.8 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- E minor1 sharp · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 99%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 128people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 627milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 438.7Hz · -5 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 3.38dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.91Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.118Essentia'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 — 99% — put it in E minor, a key signature of 1 sharp. The tempo printed above is the median of the 128 readings; 95% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.
At 95.7 BPM one beat lasts 627 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 156.7 ms and a dotted eighth 470.2 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 47.9 BPM, counted twice as fast 191.4. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.
The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 438.7 Hz, which is 5 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 3.38 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 0.91 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 E 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 E minor
Each of these differs from E 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 96 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 2507.8 | 0.4 |
| Half note | 2 | 1253.9 | 0.8 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 940.4 | 1.06 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 627 | 1.6 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 418 | 2.39 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 470.2 | 2.13 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 313.5 | 3.19 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 209 | 4.79 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 235.1 | 4.25 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 156.7 | 6.38 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 104.5 | 9.57 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 78.4 | 12.76 |
Half time 47.9 BPM · double time 191.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (627 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- Empty SpacesPink FloydE minor96BPM
- Good Day in HellEaglesE minor96BPM
- I Remember CaliforniaR.E.M.E minor95BPM
- Bring Me to LifeEvanescenceE minor95BPM
- BEP EmpireBlack Eyed PeasE minor97BPM
- Communication / Skit IIIBlack Eyed PeasE minor95BPM
- FighterChristina AguileraE minor94BPM
- Georgy PorgyTotoE minor97BPM
- Welcome Home (Sanitarium)MetallicaE minor94BPM
- We BelieveRed Hot Chili PeppersE minor98BPM
Recordings in E minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 96 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in E minorAll songs at 96 BPME minor at 90–99 BPMDeath Cab for Cutie
MusicBrainz collapses 30 recording ids into this one. Recording id c5238d6d-9b04-496c-8674-4ea7a07aecd6.