256 file limit

I've done some reading around on the internet and this forum and I see that you can't put more than 256 files onto an XL, which makes sense obviously because there's the 4 drum programs and 64 pads which comes to a total of 256...but apparently you can't save more than 256 files onto any sort of media, whether it be on a CF card/Zip/Jaz/etc?

At first I thought maybe I misunderstood/misinterpreted something and thought you could save more because most of the information I came across was about the MPC itself not being able to hold more than 256 files, but I didn't really come across any information about how many files you can save, other than a few people stating you can't exceed 256 files. Has anyone ever tried saving more than this and knows what happens?

I'm just not sure why you wouldn't be able to save loads and loads of sounds, unless somehow the machine's RAM or O.S. or whatever has to "read" these files and store them into some sort of volatile memory even if you haven't loaded up and assigned them yet. So I'm guessing it just can't access more than 256?

you can't have more than 256 sounds in memory at once. i have hit that limit way too many times, trying to cram as much as possible into an aps file.

you are right about the 4xDRUM * 64 pads each, but keep in mind you can still have other programs loaded in memory, just not assigned to a DRUM program...so you can hit the limit if you run more than 4 programs in ram.

you can have more than that on disk, like in the same folder (though i believe there is a different limit there as to what it will actually see)