Dire Straits · Love Over Gold

Private Investigations

Private Investigations is in E minor at 152.8 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

153 BPM · Allegromedian of 134 analyses · 84.5–172.3 across the middle eight tenths
Key
E minor1 sharp · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
97%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
134people who ran the extractor
One beat
392.7milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
440.8Hz · +3 cents from A 440
Dynamics
6.78dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.023Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
0.972Essentia'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

134 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 97% — put it in E minor, a key signature of 1 sharp. The tempo printed above is the median of the 134 readings; 7% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 84.5 to 172.3 BPM. That is a recording the detector cannot settle on — the readings are spread far enough that the median is a summary of a disagreement rather than a measurement anybody should trust to the decimal.

At 152.8 BPM one beat lasts 392.7 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 98.2 ms and a dotted eighth 294.5 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 76.4 BPM, counted twice as fast 305.6. A score would mark that Allegro, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440.8 Hz, which is 3 cents above 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 6.78 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 0.023 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 153 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note41570.70.64
Half note2785.31.27
Dotted quarter1.55891.7
Quarter note (one beat)1392.72.55
Quarter triplet0.667261.83.82
Dotted eighth0.75294.53.4
Eighth note0.5196.35.09
Eighth triplet0.333130.97.64
Dotted sixteenth0.375147.36.79
Sixteenth note0.2598.210.19
Sixteenth triplet0.16765.415.28
Thirty-second note0.12549.120.37

Half time 76.4 BPM · double time 305.6 BPM. Every row is one beat (392.7 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. The Better Life3 Doors DownE minor153BPM
  2. Shake a LegAC/DCE minor153BPM
  3. The TrialPink FloydE minor152BPM
  4. WomenForeignerE minor154BPM
  5. StopPink FloydE minor151BPM
  6. Planet of WomenZZ TopE minor151BPM
  7. [Parallel Stripes]Aphex TwinE minor151BPM
  8. EffigyCreedence Clearwater RevivalE minor154BPM
  9. I Wanna LiveRamonesE minor155BPM
  10. Climbing Up the WallsRadioheadE minor155BPM

Recordings in E minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 153 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in E minorAll songs at 153 BPME minor at 150–159 BPMDire Straits

MusicBrainz collapses 64 recording ids into this one. Recording id 99a9d1ca-aa98-472a-a613-8e90862227f7.