No. 22· behind-the-music
The Tempo Ladder of Ten Songs
Ten songs, ten tempo values, all inside a 10 BPM band. We line up the BPM written for each song of dear(you); vol.1 and note where documents differ.
Earlier entries in this journal each mention a tempo while reading one song or one pair of songs. This entry puts all ten in one place. The question is small: written down in order, what does the tempo of dear(you); vol.1 do from song 01 to song 10?
First, the scope. Every number below comes from our own earlier entries, which quote the song design documents and production packages written when the songs were requested. These are requested specifications, not measurements of the finished recordings, and we did not re-time the audio for this entry. The music is made with AI (Suno); the lyrics are drafted by AI and reviewed by a person.
The ten values
| Song | Written tempo | Source entry |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | 68 to 72 BPM (the production package says "around 70") | Open with a Question, Close with Comfort |
| 02 | 70 BPM | Tell Me, and You Needn't Answer |
| 03 | 72 BPM | A Developer's Song Without the Word "Developer" |
| 04 | 74 BPM | The Same Sentence in Two Songs |
| 05 | 66 to 70 BPM (68 in the production package's style text) | Putting Rest at the Center |
| 06 | 70 BPM | Six Someones, One Spoken Line |
| 07 | 72 BPM | The Same Sentence in Two Songs |
| 08 | 68 BPM | Two Lists, One Day |
| 09 | 72 BPM | Closing the Album with Its Slowest Song |
| 10 | 64 BPM | Closing the Album with Its Slowest Song |
Two songs give a range instead of a single value, 01 and 05. For the arithmetic below we take the middle of each range, 70 and 68. That is our choice for counting, not something the documents say.
What the ladder looks like
With those middles, the steps between neighbouring songs are: 0, +2, +2, −6, +2, +2, −4, +4, −8. Nine joins: five rises, three drops (6, 4 and 8) and one flat.
A few plain observations follow from the table:
- The whole album sits inside a band of 10 BPM, from 64 (song 10) to 74 (song 04).
- Using the middles, the ten values add up to 700, so the average is exactly 70.
- 72 appears three times (songs 03, 07 and 09), more than any other value. 70 appears three times too if you count the middle of song 01 (songs 01, 02 and 06).
- The two biggest steps are both drops: 04 to 05 (74 to a 66–70 range) and 09 to 10 (72 to 64). They land on the song the design documents call the one for rest and the song that closes the album.
Where the documents differ
Song 01 and song 05 are the two places where the paperwork does not agree with itself. For song 01 the design document gives 68 to 72 and the production package says around 70. For song 05 the design document gives 66 to 70 and the style text in the production package says 68. If you use the edges of those ranges instead of the middles, the 04-to-05 step can be anywhere from −4 to −8, which is why our earlier entry on the closing song treats it as possibly equal to the final drop. We keep both readings visible rather than choosing one.
What we do not say
- We do not claim the tempos were chosen to make this shape. The documents give a tempo for each song; they do not describe a ladder.
- We do not claim the recordings run at these exact tempos. A generated song can drift from its request.
- We do not say what the shape does to a listener. That would need listening tests, which we have not run.
If you want to hear the numbers, the songs are on the idle() home page. Press play on 04, then 05, then skip to 09 and 10, and decide whether the drops are audible to you.
Read together
- The last drop in detail: Closing the Album with Its Slowest Song
- The first big drop: Putting Rest at the Center
- The feelings in the same order: The Ten Steps of Feeling