Yeah, anything MIDI lends itself VERY well to microcontrollers. Most have an on-board UART to send/recieve MIDI msg's (I'm working on a USB version meself). The creator of 'edrum' I believe also created the midibox thing (
www.ucapps.com ?), nice bloke, very open, and very clever. The hard part for that is making the drum heads from scratch, but most seem to buy them, or modify cheap practice pads for use with piezo triggers.
As for sampling the triggers, you may want to use a sample-hold type circuit, so that each trigger, raises its output, but stays at maximum, until the PIC has time to read it via its ADC, then the S-H is reset.
About a JDM programmer, I built this one, and it served me well for over a year:
**broken link removed**
Easy stripboard layout, and it worked first time. You might want to add a ICSP header to it though for programming bigger PIC's (its socket is only for 18 pinners).
Always note that, with projects like edrum, what seems easy at first, can soon baloon up into a massive project of sourcing parts, designing stripboard/PCB's, and enclosures. The number of times I've calculated the cost of parts to be about 1/3rd of what they actually were after completion.
Good luck, and happy drumming
Once I have my kit setup (stil need to find a decent cheap frame) I'll hopefully add it to a website, along with some terribly executed drum solo's.
Blueteeth