I was wondering how the pulse would feel in 8/4 time. I think it would have to be divided in a way that would be awkward to do in 4/4 This song sounds like 84 but it's proabably in 4/4 because it's jrock <_<

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr_nbITvZ40

If the tempo is fast it would 8/4 but if it's moderate it's 4/4, it's just, based on the feel of the guitar with the drums, it should be 8/4 if it's a fast tempo and it sounds like a fast tempo. I've never heard a song where the drums divide the beat on the third beat of a 4/4 measure then just continue. It would need to 8/8 or 8/4 but 4/4 just doesn't feel like this song to me. What do you guys think? Anyone else notice the 3 + 3 + 2 division in a wierd place?

I just listened to the first few seconds of it and I thought it was 8/8. You can think of 8/8 and 4/4 as simply two different ways to divide eighth notes - both time signatures have 8 eighth notes - 4/4 contains two (strong) beats (2 quarter notes + 2 quarter notes = 4 eighth notes + 4 eighth notes) and 8/8 contains three beats (3 + 3 + 2).

I get what your saying now! There are a heck of alot of songs in 8/8 but I wonder why people started calling them 4/4. :\
So in a sense 8/4 would be a longer measure than 4/4 or 8/8, but then in the same sense you could have 16/8 time. :D

If you wanted to manipulate 8/4 to become 16/8, yes, you could do that.

but how many beats are in 16/8 and what are they? :\

16/8 can be written as 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2, or six beats. You can change the placement of the 3s and 2s any way you want - in relation to the piece you have up, you could have 3 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 2.

This piece from the Haruhi movie is in 16/8 (3+3+3+3+2+2):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQxzGrvqTc

Once you get past the basic time signatures, there aren't so many rules to beat patterns. 5/8 can be 3/8 + 2/8, 2/8 + 3/8, or even a mixture of the two. Really, it all depends on what you want, though if you're doing something crazy like 4/8 + 1/8 I'd spell it out more explicitly.

This piece from the Haruhi movie is in 16/8 (3+3+3+3+2+2):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbQxzGrvqTc

Once you get past the basic time signatures, there aren't so many rules to beat patterns. 5/8 can be 3/8 + 2/8, 2/8 + 3/8, or even a mixture of the two. Really, it all depends on what you want, though if you're doing something crazy like 4/8 + 1/8 I'd spell it out more explicitly.

Is that really in 3-3-3-3-2-2? It sounds and feels more like 4/4 with two bar phrases, with dotted quarters layered to give it a quasi-downbeat of 8 feel.

Pretty sure. I tried to transcribe it earlier, and there's really no rhythmic emphasis nine eighth notes in, where the second bar would begin if the piece were in 4/4. Here's the beginning of my incredibly messy transcription:
http://forums.ichigos.com/showthread.php?17510-An-unusual-request-Suzumiya-Haruhi-no-Tegakari-(already-transcribed)

EDIT: There's no real rhyme or reason to the staves, my primary goal was to get all the notes down. Of course, I paid for that later... :P

I believe emeraldshine is correct. The 3-3-3-3-2-2 continued for the entire piece until the final ending decent. The low strings continued to accent the downbeats of the pattern. Some parts may had worked as 4/4 in the piece but believe those sections should only be seen as a break for the ears rather than any change in meter as the pattern is brought back very quickly.:lol:

Cool, that does sound like 16/8 don't it :)