Audacity Forum

Can I add a measure with a beat before the beginning of the clip to count before I start the recording or playback?

Yes of course, though I usually use a couple of bars. There's several ways you can do this - here's one method.
Use "Click Track" from the Generate menu to generate the required number of bars at the required tempo.
If you already have one or more tracks in the project, select the tracks and with the Time Shift tool drag them so that they begin after your "count in".

OK, that works for me. However, how do I find out the tempo of the audio track I have imported so that I can set the "Generate" tempo to the same number?

Thanks

The most accurate way is to play the track with watch in hand and count the number of beats in 1 minute (or in 30 seconds and double the number)