In a new format we are producing videos offering tips and solutions to common problems in under a minute. In this free video tutorial we show you how easy it is to accurately measure the tempo of audio in Pro Tools.

How Do You Measure Tempo?

Lots of people would expect to use Tab to Transients to move between transients. This is a good technique on drum tracks and would work well in this example but often people want to measure the tempo of mastered tracks which have had all the transients removed by a limiter. In this case there would be no transients to tab between.

Doing It By Ear

Using the down and up arrows it is possible to create selections “on the fly” during playback. using the left and right arrows will centre the beginning or the end of the selection and by zooming in it is easy to adjust the selection in and out points by holding Shift and clicking and dragging. Adding Command+I or Control+I on a PC will identify beat. Identify Beat doesn’t identify the beat for you, it means you can tell Pro Tools which bar and beat the current location is. Use this to tell Pro Tools how long your selection is and Pro Tools will display the tempo in the Transport window. Make sure the conductor track button in the transport bar is blue or you’ll be in manual tempo mode.