Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark · The Pacific Age

(Forever) Live and Die (7″ mix)

(Forever) Live and Die (7″ mix) is in C major at 90.2 beats per minute.

Tempo

90 BPM · Andantemedian of 169 analyses · 90.1–178.2 across the middle eight tenths

Key: C majorno sharps and no flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 99%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 169people who ran the extractor
One beat: 665.2milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 443.1Hz · +12 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 5.41dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.904Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 1.128Essentia'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

169 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 99% — put it in C major, a key signature of no sharps and no flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 169 readings; 84% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 90.1 to 178.2 BPM.

At 90.2 BPM one beat lasts 665.2 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 166.3 ms and a dotted eighth 498.9 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 45.1 BPM, counted twice as fast 180.4. A score would mark that Andante, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 443.1 Hz, which is 12 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 5.41 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 0.904 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 C major; 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 C major

Each of these differs from C major 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 90 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2660.8	0.38
Half note	2	1330.4	0.75
Dotted quarter	1.5	997.8	1
Quarter note (one beat)	1	665.2	1.5
Quarter triplet	0.667	443.5	2.26
Dotted eighth	0.75	498.9	2
Eighth note	0.5	332.6	3.01
Eighth triplet	0.333	221.7	4.51
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	249.4	4.01
Sixteenth note	0.25	166.3	6.01
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	110.9	9.02
Thirty-second note	0.125	83.1	12.03

Half time 45.1 BPM · double time 180.4 BPM. Every row is one beat (665.2 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in C major, ordered by how near their tempo is to 90 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in C major All songs at 90 BPM C major at 90–99 BPM Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

MusicBrainz collapses 1 recording id into this one. Recording id 9c4222dd-fa47-49d6-aa97-3484fbc94adf.