In 4/4 music, count how many beats in 15 seconds and multiply by 4.

count how many beats in 15 seconds and multiply by 4

This assumes that a person knows what a beat is. Believe it or not, many do not. Then you add the 4/4 music thing, which is really scary.
[I have had the pleasure of working for someone who is musically brain-dead. If I were to suggest counting beats, his response would be, "What's a beat?"]

FWIW, Sound Forge will tell you what the bpm is. But you still have to know what a beat is. So I have to disagree with the Acid suggestion, too.

There's probably something out there, but not having use for such a thing, I don't know what it is. Sorry.

Anybody that taps their foot or nods their head when listening to music has a pretty good idea what a beat is. And, yes, some people don't. They probably have no business messing with music production anyway.

You could give BPM Analyzer a shot - it's free.

I would hope someone trying to find a tempo would know how it's measured.

The timing will work to get a rough idea of the tempo but that is really rough. I find some recorded music that I have beat mapped comes out to some really weird 132.715 kinda thing. Probably just a difference in the machines, timing methods, rounding errors, etc but when trying to be precise, Allegro just doesn't cut it.

Why is 132.715 weird? It's absolutely and precisely as useful and ordinary a tempo as 120.000. If 132.715 is the tempo that the performer wanted to use then it's the right tempo to use.

I've heard a wild rumor that even acoustic musicians can pick whatever tempo they want! *gasp*

"I've heard a wild rumor that even acoustic musicians can pick whatever tempo they want! *gasp*

Not only that, musicians playing live can use VBR. (Variable Beat Rate.)

I've heard a wild rumor that even acoustic musicians can pick whatever tempo they want! *gasp*

Really? Surely not!

You think someone would go out of their way to pick 132.715 within a midi workstation? Especially when using a midi sync to SMPTE? Either your being obtuse or your nitpicking.

Not only that, musicians playing live can use VBR. (Variable Beat Rate.)

Well that really invalidates the use of your stopwatch method huh?

Maybe there has been too many trolls around here lately.

"Well that really invalidates the use of your stopwatch method huh?"

Uh, no.

"You think someone would go out of their way to pick 132.715 within a midi workstation? Especially when using a midi sync to SMPTE? Either your being obtuse or your nitpicking."

Neither. I don't think a real musician would go out of their way to pick any numeric value. I think a real musician would nudge the tempo slider up or down until the speed was what was desired, completely disregarding whatever digits might be displayed. Picking only some round number is a sign of an amateur who is more concerned with mundane and useless details than a musician who is creating audible art.

And what does a sync to SMPTE have to do with it? *ANY* tempo can sync to anything. Let the computers do the math; that's why we pay money for them.