Peter,

You do see PIC's a lot in MIDI projects probably do to the tremendous penetration they have in the hobby domain. Interestingly you'll find MIDI Synths especially in the 1980/90's where build around std 8051 processors (i.e. Roland JX's for instance). Executing at 12MHz they not only handle MIDI but control the audio processing as well.

If you have any problems bringing up your interface post a message.

regards,
p