# BPM counter?
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [July 20, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643 "2009-07-20T19:03:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@SharkD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/SharkD)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2009, 7:03pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643/1 "2009-07-20T19:03:06Z")
Is there an easy tool that I can use to measure the BPMs of tracks? I know that Audacity can do this, but I want a tool that can work on multiple files or an entire directory at once. Thanks!
-Mike
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2009, 3:45pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643/2 "2009-07-21T15:45:47Z")
See there:
[http://www.mixmeister.com/bpmanalyzer/](http://www.mixmeister.com/bpmanalyzer/)
DD.20090721.1945.CEST
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### Author:  [@SharkD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/SharkD)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643/3 "2009-07-21T18:33:26Z")
I tried downloading it several times but it is always a 0-byte file. Have you tried it?
-Mike
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643/4 "2009-07-21T18:51:36Z")
Not this time but long time before, they have now an email registration established.
DD.20090721.2251.CEST
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### Author:  [@SharkD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/SharkD)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643/5 "2009-07-21T20:11:29Z")
I tried to register, but still wasn't able to download the complete file.
[edit]
I searched elsewhere for the file and was able to find it. A couple of comments:
1. The results often vary by small amounts. For instance, I have two copies of each file in two different formats. The program's results are often different by 0.01 or 0.02 BPM for one file when compared to the other despite the fact that they are identical. In one case it was off by about ~0.70 BPM!
2. It would be nice if the program listed the start and ending BPM if and when they are different.
3. The documentation doesn't describe _how_ the BPM are calculated. Is only the beginning important? The end? Are they averaged across the whole file (this would be _bad_)?
-Mike
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643/6 "2009-07-22T15:39:58Z")
> [@SharkD](#):
>
> ... The documentation doesn't describe _how_ the BPM are calculated. ...
BPM analyzers can always only do an approximation or estimation, simplified to say, they measure volume peaks in specific frequency areas of the music and they try to interpret this reduced information as a beat. The music must have concrete rhythm to be measured. Classical music's BPM is hard to measure.
There are so many additional influences like intentionally produced "human beat" or computerized groove algorithms and so on. Even pure techno beat titles are not always running on the identical beat from start to end of a song. You cannot set your clock on any post analyzed BPM value.
There may be an exception in the moment of production when electronical instruments are physical linked together via MIDI or SPDIF or other time locking methods.
There exist also some applications that allow to tap the rhythm by your own hands while the music plays with sometimes better results than technical BPM analyzing.
Read there ...
[http://www.mmartins.com/mmartins/bpmdetect...pmdetection.asp](http://www.mmartins.com/mmartins/bpmdetection/bpmdetection.asp)
[http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1952.asp](http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1952.asp)
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### Author:  [@SharkD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/SharkD)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2009, 8:56pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643/7 "2009-07-22T20:56:54Z")
What I meant was, does the program return the average BPM for the entire track, or does it return the initial or ending BPM? I'd prefer having two values (unless it remains constant): the start BPM and the end BPM since that is what is important when mixing.
-Mike
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/bpm-counter/8643/8 "2009-07-22T21:40:03Z")
> [@SharkD](#):
>
> What I meant was, does the program return the average BPM for the entire track, or does it return the initial or ending BPM? I'd prefer having two values (unless it remains constant): the start BPM and the end BPM since that is what is important when mixing. -Mike
My experiences with MixMeister's BPM analyzer is, that it returns only one value after reading through the complete file, therefore the long analyzing time for each title.
Can you elaborate what the "initial BPM" and the "ending BPM" means?
How are the values defined, how long should an analyzer read into a file to get a proper initial BPM?
Same analog question for the ending BPM?
I want to add, that I always round the MixMeister's fractional BMP results to the nearest integer value, because per definitionem beats are measured and written always as integer numbers.
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