For my project I want to create something that reacts to music or sound. Looking at projects online for inspiration, I saw that there were a lot of people who have created what is called a music visualizer or spectrum analyzer. Most of these projects have been done using an LED grid, such as the one shown in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIOUXr9v2RI
There is also a tutorial that I found on adafruit for a smaller version using their 8-by-8 LED grid. Since this one does not use as many frequency bands, it does not provide as much information about the music and is less responsive to small frequency changes. This project is shown in the video below.
Instead of using an LED grid, I found LED strips with individually programmable LEDs, which I would like to use for my project. One person made a spectrum analyzer with five bands and LED strips, pictured below. The project could use some finishing touches to make it a visually appealing piece of art.
In my project, I want to create a music visualizer, and have come up with a couple designs that I want to choose from. The first design would be a 16 band spectrum analyzer with the LED strips. This design would adhere to the traditional look of a spectrum analyzer, but I would add finishing touches to create a clean, simplistic and modern looking design. For this, I would like to create a frame for the project, painted black, and cover each strip of LEDs with fogged glass or a similar material. In addition, I would like to look into adding a mirror along the bottom to provide a reflection. The design is sketched out below.
My second design for a music visualizer would use the light intensity to represent each frequency band. This design would have 8 frequency bands represented by circles, each illuminated by LEDs. I would play around with using fogged glass or infinity mirrors for each circle. This design is sketched out below.
