Recording a sequence

Hey, I'm new to the mpc500 and had a couple of quick questions about recording sequences/samples. I was watchin some tutorial, it helped me make a quick song with drums and snares, but I can only record the song for 31 seconds.... i have a 1gb compact flash card in the front slot.. is that just for saving and not recording or something..? I checked the manuel and couldnt find anything about it.. AM i missing something?

Thanks D

You probably only have the 16mb of RAM, you can upgrade to 128mb.

The CF card is just for storage, not for production.