MIDI on AT&T PC 6300

[Bob Neumann]

Hi everyone-

At the Bell Labs Indian Hill locations out here in Naperville, Ill.
there exists a "Student Challenge Program" where AT&T employees have the
opportunity to talk and demonstrate various applications of Bell Labs/AT&T
technologies to 7th and 8th grade and high school students.  The purpose
is to encourage the students to take more science, math, and computer
classes and perhaps pursue a career later on in one of these fields.

We are working on a new application of this program that hopefully
will be realised within the next few months.  The current working title 
for this new series of talks/demonstrations is "Computers and Technology
in Music".  What is planned is a demonstration of MIDI, sequencing,
and any other possible musical application, especially those applications
that have roots in Bell Labs technologies, such as vocoders and 
digital synthesis.

Our first problem is getting a working midi/sequencing system up and
running on an AT&T PC 6300, which is the system that the Student
Challenge Program has reserved for the demonstrations.
(I use an ATARI ST at home for sequencing, however, this
is an AT&T supported activity.....).

Are there any professional or semi-professional quality sequencing
programs that can be recommended that we can try on the 6300?
A public domain program that is free would be great, but if funds have to
be appropriated what software package is the easiest to use and reliable?
We would like to do multi-track sequencing, quantization, grouping
of sequences/sections into "songs", and playback over selected MIDI 
channels, yet the operations of the sequencer should be easy for a 
7th, 8th, or high school student to understand after a short 
demonstration. (Students working hands-on with the system is a
possibility).  Prices???

We will also need a Midi interface for the 6300.  In, out, and through
should be all that we need for the moment.  Which interface is the most
cost effective, yet well built, since this syetm will be moved around a 
lot for these demonstrations.  And, how much will it cost?

Is the Roland MPU-401 (sp??) still the best that everyone uses, or are 
there other interfaces that we should consider?

I appreciate any help that I can get on this.  

If anyone in the Indian Hill area is interested in helping out with this
program, or perhaps adopting it to their own department/project for
an Adopt-A-School/Affirmative Action type project, contact me.

I will keep everyone informed of our status as well.  Thanks again!!

				Bob Neumann
				H (312)839-5978
				W (312)979-6533
				
				IH 4J-409