Find a song's BPM, then check the grid

Updated 16 October 2026

Finding the BPM gives you a starting number. Checking the grid tells you whether that number holds for the whole recording. Here is how to do both before you build a mix around it.

Find the tempo from an audio file

1. Open the track in BPM Lock. Choose a WAV, AIFF, MP3, FLAC or M4A from your device. It reads files, not Spotify or YouTube links.
2. Read the detected tempo. The smaller readout shows the estimate. The large number is the whole-number BPM the corrected export will use.
3. Play Original against the click. Listen near the start, through a clear chorus and near the end. The same estimate can sound right at the beginning and wrong later.
4. Check the markers. They should follow the musical pulse. A fast hi-hat, a bass note or a vocal syllable is not automatically a beat.

No file handy? Try the sample track. It runs through the real detector and editor, so you can compare a detected tempo with a recording that speeds up and slows down.

Check a BPM reading by ear

Tap the pulse you would count along to, then compare it with the click. A reading of 80 BPM and one of 160 BPM can describe two ways of counting the same groove. The useful choice is the one that gives you the beats and bars you intend to edit.

For a manual check in a clear 4/4 section, measure from the first beat of bar 1 to the first beat of bar 5. That spans 16 beat intervals. Divide 960 by the elapsed seconds: eight seconds means 120 BPM. Start and finish on the same point of each beat.

If a reading sounds doubled or halved, try the additional tracker and inspect the result. BPM Lock compares the grids automatically. It does not offer a separate half-time or double-time selector.

A wrong number or a changing performance?

Every beat is early or late by the same amount

The starting position may be wrong. Align a known downbeat before changing the tempo.

The difference grows steadily

The BPM estimate may be slightly off. Check a longer phrase, not just the first few kicks.

One section runs ahead and another falls behind

The recording may change tempo. One BPM number describes its overall pace, but cannot make every beat line up.

Drumless passages, swing, rubato and abrupt changes of meter make automatic readings harder. Keep your original and verify the pulse by listening. There is no tempo detector that can promise a useful answer for every recording.

Find the BPM and lock the song to the grid

If the recording really drifts, a new BPM tag will not fix it. BPM Lock stretches the audio between the checked markers onto one constant, integer BPM, with pitch preserved. Play BPM locked, correct misplaced anchors, then render a new file.

Set your DAW to the exported BPM and align the chosen downbeat. BPM Lock does not accept an arbitrary target tempo: if your session needs a different speed, remove the drift first, then change the steady file's tempo in your DAW.

Next: make a recording one constant tempo, line up the export with your DAW, or browse the guides.