The Animals · The Animals
The House of the Rising Sun
The House of the Rising Sun is in A minor at 117.9 beats per minute.
Tempo
118 BPM · Moderatomedian of 320 analyses · 117.7–119.3 across the middle eight tenths- Key
- A minorno sharps and no flats · the key most of the analyses agreed on
- Agreement
- 99%share of analyses that agreed
- Analyses
- 320people who ran the extractor
- One beat
- 508.9milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
- Tuning
- 438.7Hz · -5 cents from A 440
- Dynamics
- 2.65dB the level wanders from its average
- Loudness
- 0.868Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
- Danceability
- 1.031Essentia'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
320 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. All but a handful of them — 99% — put it in A minor, a key signature of no sharps and no flats. The tempo printed above is the median of the 320 readings; 96% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 117.7 to 119.3 BPM.
At 117.9 BPM one beat lasts 508.9 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 127.2 ms and a dotted eighth 381.7 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 59 BPM, counted twice as fast 235.8. A score would mark that Moderato, 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 2.65 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 0.868 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 A 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 A minor
Each of these differs from A 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 118 BPM
| Note value | Beats | Milliseconds | Hertz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whole note | 4 | 2035.6 | 0.49 |
| Half note | 2 | 1017.8 | 0.98 |
| Dotted quarter | 1.5 | 763.4 | 1.31 |
| Quarter note (one beat) | 1 | 508.9 | 1.97 |
| Quarter triplet | 0.667 | 339.3 | 2.95 |
| Dotted eighth | 0.75 | 381.7 | 2.62 |
| Eighth note | 0.5 | 254.5 | 3.93 |
| Eighth triplet | 0.333 | 169.6 | 5.9 |
| Dotted sixteenth | 0.375 | 190.8 | 5.24 |
| Sixteenth note | 0.25 | 127.2 | 7.86 |
| Sixteenth triplet | 0.167 | 84.8 | 11.79 |
| Thirty-second note | 0.125 | 63.6 | 15.72 |
Half time 59 BPM · double time 235.8 BPM. Every row is one beat (508.9 ms) times the fraction in the second column.
Closest in key and tempo
- I Do Not Want ThisNine Inch NailsA minor118BPM
- Neat Neat NeatThe DamnedA minor118BPM
- SittingCat StevensA minor118BPM
- KlavierRammsteinA minor118BPM
- Stacy’s MomFountains of WayneA minor118BPM
- God Fearing ManBen HarperA minor118BPM
- Wayfaring StrangerJohnny CashA minor118BPM
- Why GoPearl JamA minor118BPM
- Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood + Esmeralda SuiteSanta EsmeraldaA minor118BPM
- Smooth CriminalMichael JacksonA minor118BPM
Recordings in A minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 118 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.
All songs in A minorAll songs at 118 BPMA minor at 110–119 BPM
MusicBrainz collapses 52 recording ids into this one. Recording id 1c4f7312-2f9f-4188-93c9-00971318f92c.