I have never used my computer for my music other than backing up
memories (ie. Roland TR707, and Alesis MMT8) using the tape back up
(tone) but I read so much about saving MIDI information using SYSEX
and I would like to learn about it.

My questions:
1) are there any books or web sites that explain sysex?
2) can I store patches?
3) I have a joystick output on my computer what is the name of the
jack I have to get to hook up to my MIDI i/o?
4) what other things can I do with sysex?
5) can I arrange patterns on my computer after loading them using
sysex?

I know these questions are basic, but I'm clue-less and would love to
take full advantage of my computer.

thanks in advance for the help.

-Mark