What would be the quickest and easiest way to have a FastLED project respond to music? I have a display with 544 leds and I would like to get some kind of pattern that is music driven.
Commenting because I’d also like to know. For the record I’ve tried using Processing 2.x and trying an arduino with op amp. Couldn’t get either to work with the tutorials available.
Simplest, add a microphone and sample the audio signal. Use the value to change the value of LEDs. Maybe scale that value to the hue.
This is called a VU meter.
Next level, use an algorithm called a fast Fourier transform (fft). This gives you series of values that represent the energy in different frequency bands. This allows you change color on bass or treble or mids.
Adafruit has a neat project using an ARM M4 they build that sort of does exactly this. Basically, you need a bit more power than an Arduino can give you to do audio work. However, there are cheap boards that can.
Check out the Teensy 3.1 board and the Audio Adapter for it: https://www.pjrc.com/store/teensy3_audio.html
I’m currently using a Teensy 3.1 and the audio adapter for an LED matrix. I can upload my code for you if you’d like. It’s a bit messy due to constantly being worked on, but it works.
I was able to use just a microphone and the FHT (Fast Hartley Transform) library from Open Music Labs on an UNO.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I’m going to see what happens with trying a couple of methods.
@Andrew_Tuline Did you need an op-amp for this or did you already have a hefty (not a electret) mic?
I’m getting the best results with the Sparkfun MEMS microphone + op amp (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9868). It works on 3.3V, so you supply it with the 3.3V output, and connect the 3.3V to the AREF. In the setup code, you would add:
analogReference(EXTERNAL);
If you use a 5V mic+op-amp, you don’t need all that extra stuff.
Oh, and I haven’t yet found a cheap aliexpress alternative.