Sound Reactive CCFL

[Thomtom]

Ok so I have seen a few people who have tried connecting their Cothodes to a sound reactive module but from what I have seen it never really quite works.

Does anyone have any advice on whatcan/should be done?

Would be cool if you could connect cathodes directly into a sound card!! haha

Thanks in advance

[JazzyJake]

mine came with one, it's a Logisys kit that has a PCI bracket that lets you choose on, off, and sound reactive, and it works pretty well.
sorry i don't have any actual advice

[gvblake22]

I've never tried using the sound activated things, just never really appealed to me...

[Thomtom]

I just thought it might be a bit different but there doesnt seem to be an good modules out there.

Only ever had single coloured lights in my machine.


OOOOH IT GLOWS

[Reloadron]

Originally Posted by Thomtom

Ok so I have seen a few people who have tried connecting their Cothodes to a sound reactive module but from what I have seen it never really quite works.

Does anyone have any advice on whatcan/should be done?

Would be cool if you could connect cathodes directly into a sound card!! haha

Thanks in advance

I can't tell you the best of the ones out there but all the ones I have read about share a common problem. A CCFL (Cold Cathode Flourescent Light) adds a nice touch as a case mod to provide illumination is assorted colors to the inside of a case. CCFLs are great for that.

However, when trying to get a CCFL to react or respond to sound there are a few problems. A CCFL is basically a device with 2 states, it is either on or off. Though intensity can be varied or modulated slightly the results are generally less than astonishing.

Therefore, discounting a response to Bass, Midrange, or Treble (Low, Medium and High Frequencies), you still have an On/Off device that will respond (Trigger) more to a level of audio than a frequency. Above a level and the tube is on, below a level and the tube is off.

The ideal device would not be a CCFL but several small 12 Volt incandescent bulbs, think Color Organ. Maybe we should build and market one of them.

Ron

Ron

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Reloadron

However, when trying to get a CCFL to react or respond to sound there are a few problems. A CCFL is basically a device with 2 states, it is either on or off. Though intensity can be varied or modulated slightly the results are generally less than astonishing.

Therefore, discounting a response to Bass, Midrange, or Treble (Low, Medium and High Frequencies), you still have an On/Off device that will respond (Trigger) more to a level of audio than a frequency. Above a level and the tube is on, below a level and the tube is off.

Exactly, good explanation Ron! I think the problem is that it is too hard (if not impossible) to get these things to pick out and respond to a sound that can offer some kind of distinguishable effect with just on and off states. Music has such a large range of sounds that even advanced visualizations in Winamp or Windows Media Player have a hard time picking out sounds to adjust with, let alone some cheapo CCFL with on and off. Unless you were playing like a first person shooting game or something with obvious loud noises followed by silence, the sound activated thing probably just isn't going to work the way people envision.

[Thomtom]

Originally Posted by Reloadron

However, when trying to get a CCFL to react or respond to sound there are a few problems. A CCFL is basically a device with 2 states, it is either on or off. Though intensity can be varied or modulated slightly the results are generally less than astonishing.

Thanks for the advice I will look into this.

Very well explained it made sense even to an idiot like me!