MixPad can scan music files added to your project and automatically determine the precise tempo and location of the beats.

You can configure how the automatic beat analysis is performed by going to the 'Clips' tab of the options dialog and selecting one of the options. By default, MixPad will scan any clips you add to your project in the background and then update the beat information on the clip when the scan is complete. You can also choose to scan the clip before loading or only scan on demand. Full details on these options can be found here.

Analysis will only be successful on source files with a predictable tempo. If MixPad is unable to determine the tempo reliably then it will not show any beat information. However, you can always add the tempo manually using the tempo editor.

If you load a single clip into MixPad, and you have selected the background analysis option, then MixPad will also change the project tempo to match the tempo of the loaded clip.

If MixPad is unable to determine the tempo of a clip, or it makes an error, you can manually adjust the tempo using the Tempo Editor. To access the editor, right click on a clip and select 'Edit Tempo and Beat Grid' from the menu. Details on how to use the Tempo Editor can be found here.

You can modify a clip so that its tempo matches that of another clip or the project tempo. To do this, right click on a clip and click the 'Beat Match' sub menu and then select either 'Beat Match To Project' or 'Beat Match Another Clip'. Beat matching to the project will modify your clip so that it matches the current tempo you have set for the project. This value can be found and edited in the small toolpanel at the top of the project window. If you select to beat match to another clip, then you MixPad will ask you to select which clip you want to use as a target for beat matching from a drop down list.

Note: Beat matching will generally work well for music with a reasonably obvious beat and it will work for songs with a fixed tempo or a variable tempo.