SOLVED, THANK YOU detecting tempo

If its an audio file then if you can enable audio snap and pull up the audio snap toolbar and it will show you what it detected.  You can also use melodyne and it will attempt to guess the temp as well.  There are other tools or VST out there that would probably do it at well. 

I have tried a lot of different methods but I find the easiest is what Craig suggested. Typically I go further than 1 measure though. If the song was recorded with a click track your in luck. even if your guide copy was recorded on tape, with a decent capstan motor, your in luck. ive done this over 100 times easily.
 
Here is something important to keep in mind. If you are simply trying to match the guide track beat for beat, use Melodyne. If you are looking to have a consistent guide track, use the method below:
 
1- Snap the beginning of the material to where the first down beat is / to 2:01 on the timeline.
 
2- Then go to add tempo change and use the Tap button to Tap out the BPM's to give you a basic Tempo of the song (make sure your Sonar Click/Metronome is disabled: Nothing worse than trying to calculate a tempo with another tempo clicking away.)
 
3- Next move the Nowtime to approx. 20 to 30:01 on the timeline.
 
4- look for another downbeat in the audio wave form and get as close as possible.
(This is the tricky part as I find a tempo of 110BPM hardly ever works, you need to get fine tuned to something in the decimal range, for example:110.52 or 109.83)
 
This will give you a good guide track that does not fluctuate in tempo as Melodyne will.

Have you tried this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_SKmr_07Is ?
 
Rocky
 

It really depends on what you are trying to achieve. Melodyne detects tempo very well. This is perfect Tempo matching, However I find the content has to have a clean loud drum background. if not Melodyne tends to make mistakes (even when set to melodic or percussive algorithms).
 
However if you have ever tried to recreate an old version of a song you have laid down, you don't want to use Melodyne as the tempo will vary and be an exact duplicate of the original tempo / IE- Drifting.
 
If you want to recreate an old version of a song, I suggest using straight tempo without the drift.
Thus my previous post on how to accomplish this feat.

WOW indeed, again, i have to thank everyone for such fabulous advice.
i will be working on this for a while now.
i will consider this solved
thanks so much for taking the time.
jp

@bluzdog, i don't know yet, i've been distracted with a new amp. i hope to work on that song in the next day or so. I 'll let you know if you like.
jp