How to set 3/4 time signature for styles on Yamaha PSR E373?

[Jirina]

Hello, I bought Yamaha PSR E373 for my daughter who is learning to play it. Her teacher would like to use Auto Accompaniment and Styles, which is no problem. However, Styles are in 4/4 time signature (4 beats in a measure) and I wonder whether there is any option to change it to 3/4. I went through the manual, but could not find this. Time signature can be set in the menu (Functions), however, this is not possible when Styles are used.
I would appreciate any advice. Thank you.

 

[Biggles]

Hi

Press and hold the Metronome button.

A message TimeSigN appears then use the +/- buttons to set the time signature.

It is described on page 16 of the current En manual

 

[SeaGtGruff]

The thing is, you can set the Time Signature if you want to record a song, but you can't change the existing Time Signature of an existing song or style.

So if you want to use 3/4 time while using auto-accompaniment, you must choose a style that's programmed in 3/4 time. I'm not sure how many styles the keyboard has in 3/4 time, but there should be a few.

Note that you can increase or decrease the Tempo setting as needed after selecting a style, if its default tempo is slower or faster than desired.

 

[Biggles]

I know that style files can me loaded in the E463 but a quick look at the manual for the E373 does not show it is available, but do double check.

What I am getting at is you might be better swapping over her 373 to the 463. The 463 is the more versatile arranger simply because of its adaptability in functions like import.

There are hundreds of Style files available to download and install which is why I am suggesting a potential change of keyboard.

 

[Jirina]

Thank you very much for your valuable tips, I appreciate it. The truth is that it is probably impossible to change the time signature for styles included with the keyboard, I just need to check if any of them is 3/4. If not, importing styles would be the only way if I do not want to change the keyboard I bought 3 weeks ago.

 

[SeaGtGruff]

I looked at the manual, and there are perhaps a half dozen styles toward the end of the list which are classified as waltzes, so they're presumably in 3/4 time.

There are also a few styles with "6/8" in their names, and you might be able to use them to fake a 3/4 time-- but the waltz styles would be a better bet.

As for loading new styles, the PSR-E3xx series doesn't include a USB TO DEVICE port for inserting a USB flash drive, but if you use its USB TO HOST port to connect to a Windows computer or iOS device then you can use Yamaha's Musicsoft Downloader software (in Windows) or MusicSoft Manager app (in iOS) to transfer new style files into the keyboard's internal storage memory. After doing so, you'll need to use the StyleReg function to "register" (load) the desired style file as one of the 10 "user styles"-- Styles 206 through 215.

So if you can't find a built-in 3/4 style that suits your needs, you can look for more 3/4 style files on sites such as PSR Tutorial-- although you will very likely need to convert many of them from SFF2 files to SFF1 files, you might need to rearrange their variations to move the desired ones to A and B and to remove any unusable C and D variations, and you'll almost certainly want to revoice them so they use the best available voices on your model. There should be a number of old threads in these forums which talk about how to do those things.

 

[Biggles]

Thank you very much for your valuable tips, I appreciate it. The truth is that it is probably impossible to change the time signature for styles included with the keyboard, I just need to check if any of them is 3/4. If not, importing styles would be the only way if I do not want to change the keyboard I bought 3 weeks ago.

I suggest you give Michael’s excellent advice a try asap.

If you are OK with the results then that is great if not then as most suppliers seem to have a 30 free return policy you will still have the option to swap the 373 for a E463 or a EW410

 

[vbdx66]

I would not swap the E373 for the E463 because the E373 has more digital effects and the new Super Art Lite! voices as well as a much better Live! Grand Piano piano voice. I’d keep the E373 for the time being and if she improves and keeps playing, I’d wait for the E473 to come out or, in one or two years, upgrade to the DGX670 if she really is into piano playing but also likes the arranger features.