Audio Spectrum Display

David_AVD said:
What type of lights (DC / pixel) do people have in mind for this?

I would use 12v generic non smart, whatever you come up with we will do the rest. Would give me more reasons for more 60 channel DC controllers.
 
Could you only use DC or Pixel for this idea? Any ideas of a work around as such for us non-DC display people?
Or does it come down to lots of programing to give the effect?
 
The most basic system would be either:

A) "Colour Organ" - One channel per spectrum slot with intensity proportional to the sound level

B) "Bargraph" - 8 channels per spectrum slot with each one either on or off
 
I am currently experimenting with an Arduino, a sparkfun spectrum shield and bliptronics LEDpixel library. I intend on using 7 tint tubes with ws2810 pixel based strips, thinking of just using a small fm receiver for the audio input. Will use a single dmx channel to turn on and off so not on all the time, only where it suits in the sequence.
 
David_AVD said:
The most basic system would be either:

A) "Colour Organ" - One channel per spectrum slot with intensity proportional to the sound level

B) "Bargraph" - 8 channels per spectrum slot with each one either on or off

Could you explain the differences in more detail, pls ... I think I understand ... and I think it is the 'colour organ' that I imagine ...

TY
 
The "colour organ" mode has just one channel per frequency band. Each channel varies in intensity according to how loud that frequency is. So you end up with (say) 8 channels with the first one doing bass, the middle ones doing midrange, all they way up to the last channel doing the treble. Each channel pulsates in time with how much of that frequency band is present.

The "bar graph" mode has (say) 8 channels per frequency band (usually in columns) and (say) 8 bands, making for 64 channels in total. Each channel is either on or off. For a given frequency band, louder sound is represented by more channels on (a taller column).

Now, both of those scenarios are based on individual channels being simple (single) colours, not RGB. How you'd do a pixel version is another thing as you've got 3 channels per physical light to deal with then.
 
Madrix already offers this out of the box. You guys may want to download Madrix, install and see what they do. It's completely free, but you need to pay if you want non-interrupted output.

They have a bunch of different sound to light and music to light effects such as bars, wave forms, shapes and colors. These all change live based on sound input, frequencies, etc. You can also layer them over top of other effect to build up cool displays.
 
Bill, it seems that some people are wanting a hardware solution. Even so, using Madrix in demo mode (with dropouts ever 30 seconds) is probably not what people would prefer. (I could be wrong of course)
 
I would likely be using a 2801 pixel on my matrix this year. Im sure a 6803 would do fine for this application but it will be used as an effect on my matrix.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of someone building a nutcracker or similar plug-in. I suppose a hardware solution would work too, however I wouldn't think someone would want to dedicate pixels just for this.

Personally I'd want all my pixels pulling double-duty if at all possible. They could other overlay spectrum on top of existing programming or have special sections where spectrum display was enabled in place of existing programming.

Something like this would be nice at the controller level, similar to how intelligent DMX lights include a microphone and can use that to control the light. ECG or 680/681 could have a microphone input, and you could configure strings to have an effect or overlay an effect on top of programming :)
 
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