Orchestra Harlow, EL MALECON, salsa classic, meanspeed=71.6 bpm, meanemotion=graceful, also heard as 143.2 bpm in the complex poly-rhythms

On this Latin salsa piece, El Malecon by Orchestra Harlow I charted the four underlying quarters notes of the measure—so if you are hearing a speed double this one, you are hearing the 8th notes playing poly-rhythmically above the steady pulse of 71.6 beats per minute.

The graph features 4 beat groups that are continuous moving averages. Said Luis, of 83rd street, who owns 880 salsa CDs and will slow down when he “reaches a thousand,” called this Harlow piece “of the ultimate Latin classic roots of salsa."


Meanspeed-Carlton Summary
song title="El Malecon"
standard tempo/mean speed=71.6 beats per minute, using a 1/2 note as the beat
mean-emotion=grace
beat frequency=1.193 beats per second
average beat length=838 milliseconds per beat.
mean slow phase=1.193 cycles per second.
corresponding pitch= 305.49 Hertz, 70 cents above D4=293.665 Hertz and 30 cents below D#4/Eb4=311.127 Hertz.

The liner notes indicate that:
Vocals-Ismael Miranda
Producer-Jerry Masucci
Recording Director-Larry Harlow

Ian Andrew Schneider

"You walked into the party like you were walking on to a yacht!" CARLY SIMON: "YOU'RE SO VAIN" - Tempo analysis of minor key pop at a comfort speed

These are some speed charts from the original studio version of the Carly Simon classic You’re So Vain.
"You’re So Vain" falls at the slower end of lust. As you can see, the song was recorded without the use of any metronome or substitute therefore, so the speed of the measures vary from 100-110 1/2 beats per minute.


Like many songs at the speed of lust, the song is in a minor key. For those who don’t know, “minor” keys are have the dark, sad sound, as they are based on minor chords and minor scales. Songs as Riders On The Storm, The Sounds Of Silence, White Room, California Dreaming: all in a minor key. It is impossible to say why. It is easy to guess, though, that a lustful sound, sometimes pure desire, sometimes sexual sometimes just a [life wish], sounds more intense with the darker sound of a minor key. Minor keys: In The Air Tonight, White Room, Layla at the speed of Enthusiasm, Lust and foreboding, respectively—would sound absurd in D major rather than the dark D minor.

Also, it’s not fair to put that out about Layla without explaining part two: Db major, a part written by the drummer separately where Clapton convinced him to make it part two of the song. It is almost played out—in Goodfellas, it is played almost on a loop. The key is Db major—always a wet sounding dark key---with a bridge in Bb minor.

Meanspeed-Carlton Summary
sing title=You’re So Vain
composer=Carly Simon
standard tempo/mean speed=105.6 beats per minute
mean-emotion=Lustful
beat frequency=1.76 beats per second
average beat length=568 milliseconds per beat.
mean slow phase=1.76 cycles per second.
corresponding pitch=450.56 Hertz, 40 cents above A4=440.000 Hertz and 60 cents below A#4/Bb4=466.164 Hertz.

Ian Andrew Schneider

OYE COMO VA, Santana, single studio and Greatest Hits version, standard tempo/mean speed=128.9 beats per minute

These are three graphs, one radar, one linear with trend-line, and one illustrating results of all ten averaged trials of the contiguous 4 beat moving averages so depicted that illustrate the speed of the single version of Carlos Santana’s studio—Greatest Hits version also—of his cover of the Latin classic, an analysis of the original found on this site from two days ago: Tito Puente’s original Latin Salsa Oye Como Va.

The frequencies for Oye Como Va are:
standard tempo/mean speed=128.9 beats per minute
beat frequency=2.148 beats per second
average beat=465 milliseconds per beat.
mean slow phase=2.148 cycles per second.
corresponding pitch=549.97 Hertz, 14 cents above C5=523.251 Hertz and 86 cents below C#5/Db5=554.365 Hertz.

Ian Andrew Schneider
New York, NY
August 7, 2006