The Arduino-Compatible Music Visualizer Makes Music Beautiful Courtesy of an RGB LED Strip

Anyone looking to synchronize RGB LEDs to music now has a new tool in their arsenal, courtesy of "justcallmekoko:" an Arduino-compatible music visualizer board based on the Microchip ATmega328P-AU microcontroller.

"A while back I had published a project detailing the process for creating your own music visualizer using an Arduino Uno and a SparkFun Spectrum Shield," Koko writes of the project. "I love SparkFun and I love Arduino, but I also love making things as simple and intuitive as possible. For these reasons, I have designed the Arduino-compatible Music Visualizer. It is the single board version of the original Arduino Music Visualizer from my previous project with a few other changes.

"Rather than using the FastLED library, I have employed the Adafruit NeoPixel library which made for some more simple code in the end. There are no extra wires needed and no other boards or shields to add. You simply connect your WS2812B strip to the pre-soldered JST connector, plug in your audio source and speaker to the 3.5mm jacks, and plug in a micro USB cable for power."

The compact board features two MSGEQ7 audio spectrum analyzers, working on the left and right audio channels which are both represented on a connected WS2812B RGB LED strip of up to 255 LEDs. Power is taken from a micro-USB port, but the audio is handled through a pair of 3.5mm jacks: The output from an audio source goes into one, and speakers or headphones into the other.

The design includes an on-board "cycle" button which switches through a variety of pre-programmed visualization patterns, and a 3D-printed enclosure keeps the hardware safe. The design files, schematic, and source code, meanwhile, are available under an unspecified licence on Koko's GitHub repository.

The Music Visualizer is available on Koko's Tindie store, priced at $35 per board with the 3D-printed enclosure included.