Nine Inch Nails · Pretty Hate Machine

Something I Can Never Have

Something I Can Never Have is in F minor at 107.4 beats per minute.

4080120160200

Tempo

107 BPM · Andantemedian of 146 analyses · 107.1–107.7 across the middle eight tenths
Key
F minor4 flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement
51%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses
146people who ran the extractor
One beat
558.7milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning
440Hz · 0 cents from A 440
Dynamics
5.27dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness
0.278Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability
0.911Essentia'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. A bare majority of them — 51% — put it in F minor, a key signature of 4 flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 146 readings; 95% of them land within 2% of it, and they barely differ at all.

At 107.4 BPM one beat lasts 558.7 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 139.7 ms and a dotted eighth 419 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 53.7 BPM, counted twice as fast 214.8. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440 Hz, which is 0 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 5.27 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 0.278 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 107 BPM

Note valueBeatsMillisecondsHertz
Whole note42234.60.45
Half note21117.30.9
Dotted quarter1.58381.19
Quarter note (one beat)1558.71.79
Quarter triplet0.667372.42.69
Dotted eighth0.754192.39
Eighth note0.5279.33.58
Eighth triplet0.333186.25.37
Dotted sixteenth0.375209.54.77
Sixteenth note0.25139.77.16
Sixteenth triplet0.16793.110.74
Thirty-second note0.12569.814.32

Half time 53.7 BPM · double time 214.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (558.7 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

  1. FrozenMadonnaF minor108BPM
  2. Beggin for ThreadBANKSF minor108BPM
  3. Lovin’ ProofCéline DionF minor108BPM
  4. Brooklyn BabyLana Del ReyF minor108BPM
  5. What’s Your Flava?Craig DavidF minor108BPM
  6. HNSCCThe 1975F minor108BPM
  7. Dark End of the StreetAretha FranklinF minor109BPM
  8. I Can’t Get Next to YouThe TemptationsF minor109BPM
  9. Lolo (intro)Dr. Dre featuring Xzibit & Tray DeeeF minor106BPM
  10. Psychedelic ShackThe TemptationsF minor109BPM

Recordings in F minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 107 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in F minorAll songs at 107 BPMF minor at 100–109 BPMNine Inch Nails

MusicBrainz collapses 84 recording ids into this one. Recording id e070a087-3c57-4164-97d0-60accc458ca1.