Hello fellow SX900 owners! I am quite new to this forum as a registered member, although having obtained quite a bit of insight as a guest over the years.
I got me an SX900 a few months ago, while keeping my old and faithful 3000. The SX is quite a step from its predecessors, but a complaint I had is about how Yamaha reorganized the Styles in this model. Users of previous models have probably noticed that "Ballad", "Country" and "Swing&Jazz" are gone, and the related styles were scattered between "Pop and Rock", "Dance" and "Jazz" categories. The latter includes Pops and Ballads, despite its name. Moreover, as Yamaha's creativity has traditionally had it, many 16-beat and 6/8 style names bear no hint about their time signature. Also, like in previous models, under "Ballroom", "Movie&Show", "Entertainer" and "World" we find styles belonging to all categories. Finding the most suitable style for a song is a challenge, at least before an extensive experience with the particular keyboard model is achieved. The 3000 has little over 400 styles. The SX900 has 525.
I eventually took over the task of classifying each of the SX900 styles under one of 12 categories:
00B ("Free" styles)
03B (Waltzes)
08B (Ballads, softer Pop)
12B (6/8 by convention, but 12/8 in fact)
16B (Ballads, slower Pop)
Dnc (mostly with Bass Drum on every beat)
Lat (all colors of Latin except Brazilian)
Mch (Marches)
MPB (Brazilian popular music - Bossa, Samba etc.)
MRB (Brazilian regional music - our "country" styles)
PRk (Pop and Rock, faster styles)
SJz (Swing and Jazz)
The job took me several days, but the resulting list is proving quite useful to expedite finding (or not) a satisfactory internal style for a given song, either a new one or one played on a previous keyboard. The default tempo of each style, which I recorded along with its assigned category, helps in further narrowing down the choices. I'm sharing this list here, as an Excel spreadsheet, hoping it turns out useful to at least some of you, and would appreciate any feedback or questions.
Cheers -- José
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