Magician:
I'm curious what kind of software :I'll be running animation and audio visualization/audio processing software from my laptop
is capable to create 3D animation ?
There is a link: http://www.elcojacobs.com/shiftpwm/ , it says limit 768, w/ 75 fps. So you should be o'k with 60 fps.
The shift register thing isn't really that helpful for me, I don't think... unless I'm missing the idea. I need complete simultaneous control over everything. I've pretty much decided to just multiplex out the signal from the USB controller, no arduino.
Also... I haven't written it yet :3
Most of that comes after it's built.