rhythms missing 2/4 6/8 12/8

[Netsurfer]

Hi, happy to have found this forum
I'm writing for my dad, who is not very good on the internet XD
He has a SX900 and since the beginning, he's told me about this problem:
He can't find any rhythms or styles (I don't know exactly if they are the same thing sorry) like 2/4, 6/8 and if I'm not wrong 12/8 too.
(I studied piano years ago but I'm not an expert with keyboards).
He also told me that some rhythms are labeled in a way but in reality they are something else.
Can you help me with this problem please?
Of course if you need some information I'm gonna get it for you

P.s. I think my father and a friend of his that has the same problem and the same keyboard already tried the expansion pack on the website, if that's something they had to do

P.p.s. I'm Italian if anyone is interested

[mikf]

 There has been a lot of discussion about this issue in the past. I think he is referring to the styles that are labeled as 6/8, 2/4 or 12/8 actually show 4/4 in the style. That's because Yamaha tend to use 4/4 to program all these different time signatures. It really doesn't matter to the style programming (although there are some who think it does!) because all the styles mentioned are based on either 2 beats or four beats to the bar and to the midi time clock that doesn't matter. However, I bet that won't stop the flurry of posts pointing out why it does matter because some have a big bee in their bonnet about this issue.
I won't go into depth here on time signatures and why it largely doesn't matter on an arranger, suffice to say that the style itself still reflects the correct rhythmic feel for the time signature label, even if the program shows 4/4 because that comes from how the individual style instruments are programmed. When the music is on paper the time signature helps impart information to the musician that he needs to properly interpret the rhythmic feel. But since that rhythmic-feel is already apparent in the style, this is unnecessary.
Mike

[Fred Smith]

He won't find 2/4 styles on his keyboard, although you can get third party 2/4 styles on the internet. Most of us just play a 4/4 style which spans two bars.

There are onboard (called "preset") styles designed for 6/8 and 12/8 time signatures as you can tell from the name of the style. Your father is correct, however, that the beat in the screen is displayed as 4/4. Again, you can get true 6/8 styles from third parties.

Most of us don't worry about this Yamaha idiosyncrasy. We just play the style as intended, and don't worry too much about the beats displayed on the screen.

Cheers,
Fred

[Netsurfer]

Thank you!
Any help for a third party please?

[vlbrgt]

'Wim NL' a member on this forum has converted styles into 2/4, 6/8, 12/8.
He did this for the Tyros 4, Tyros 5 and Genos.
I think they can be used on the PSR SX900 too.
Take a look at following topic.
https://www.psrtutorial.com/forum/index.php/topic,52337.msg409424.html#msg409424

Regards
Etienne

[Netsurfer]

Thanks 

[mikf]

I don't believe the styles are any less 'true' because they display 4 beats to the bar. You could write music as notes with no bar dividers at all, and no time signature, and it would still be the same piece of music. But it might be hard for the musician to read, and would provide no information on how it should sound rhythmically.
Division into chunks and time signatures evolved to make it easier to read and write music on paper along with conventions surrounding them to give the musician additional information on how to play it. So for example if he sees 6/8 jig time written, he immediately has a feel for the rhythm.
But none of this matters when you don't need to work it out from paper, or read the music, because you can hear the rhythm anyway in a style. As Fred says 2/4 and 4/4 are really just a bar length difference, the beat is the essentially same. 12/8 is actually closely related to 4/4 being four beats to the bar, just four sets of triplets, and is often actually written as 4/4 even on sheet music, where you might see something like 4/4 doo wop, rather than written as 12/8. In the same way 6/8 is related to 2/4, which in turn not too different from 4/4.
But it's all fairly irrelevant for style management.
Mike

[aprilla]

If your dad's SX900 can play SFF1 styles, I've lately been sorting through my 3rd party styles and separated out some with time signatures like 5-4, 6-8, 12-8 etc. Not a lot, but some to get going with while looking out for more maybe.
If he'd like to try them here they are
https://mega.nz/file/MbpyBCDR#f4VNZx2mUZCBkSHeEB3gIGZyacWi3r9mYfYugVgysfA

[vlbrgt]

Hello Aprilla,

Thanks for sharing these styles.
I will try them too.

Regards
Etienne