Make an LED Music Visualizer for Your Home
Light up your playlist by building a mesmerizing LED music visualizer with this streamlined DIY circuit.
There’s something mesmerizing about lights dancing to the beat of music. The effect completely changes the atmosphere, turning a simple auditory experience into a pulse-pounding, multi-sensory journey. There are a thousand ways to synchronize visuals with music, but Zafer Yildiz has developed an accessible method using basic electronic components that anyone can build at home.
The display consists of ten rows of five LEDs each, in green, red, and yellow. Each row is wired to a transistor that controls when it is switched on and off. The base of each transistor is connected to an LED output of an LM3915 display driver chip. An optocoupler connects the input of the display driver to an audio amplifier module. This amplifier accepts an input signal via a TRS jack, and also outputs to a speaker so that the music is audible.
When the circuit is powered up and the TRS jack is connected to an audio source, the lights dance to the music. This creates an interesting effect that would be fun to play with as a desk toy. If paired with a 3D-printed case, this music visualizer would look good anywhere in the home.
Yildiz takes the extra time to build the device as a circuit sculpture, but the same basic circuit could easily be wired up on a breadboard, or even designed into a printed circuit board if you want something more durable. Be sure to check out the video to see how you can build your own copy of the device in just a few hours.
R&D, creativity, and building the next big thing you never knew you wanted are my specialties.