SPS-1/UW (Classic) holds 2mb of sample space
32-Steps
32 Rom Slots
2 RAM Machines

SPS-1/UW MKII holds 2.5mb of sample space
64-Steps
48 Rom Slots
4 Ram Machines

From the Manual, Page 75: “All sample speeds from 4 kHz to 48 kHz are accepted and handled by the Machine- drum UserWave. Higher rates are accepted but the samples are downsampled to half the sampling speed. The Machinedrum UserWave does not handle stereo samples. All bit depths are accepted but will be played back at 12 bit.”

A Note from Elektron: “12 bit samples loaded into the Machinedrum will take actually take the same amount of storage space as 16 bit samples will. If you want to save space I recommend to convert the samples to 22 kHz.”

• There are many different ways to efficiently use your sample space. 2mb or 2.5mb can go along way if you’re crafty with your samples.

• Pitching samples up will shorten the length of your sample. Once loaded into the ROM slot you can repitch the sample.

• Reducing the sample rate below 44.1khz will decrease the size of the sample.

• If you have a sample in RAM that you want to save to ROM, save it first before doing any other tasks in the Sample Manager. Doing other minor tasks, such as deleting a ROM sample to make room for your RAM sample, may prompt the MD to reload all samples. This will delete all RAM samples (found this out the hard way).