I am planning make a sound reactive LED controller with Arduino Nano which reads audio signal from any audio jack (probably 3.5mm), e.g. computer line-out, music players. The louder the music, the brighter the LEDs.
I had tried to use a microphone module to read the sound level before, but the result was not what I expected. The performance is unstable since it depends on the distance between the microphone and the speakers.
Therefore, I think reading the audio signal directly from the audio jack could result in better performance.
The questions are:
- Can I read the sound level directly from the audio jack with Arduino?
- How should I connect the electrical components?
- Do I need any resistor or capacitor? Why?
I am using a USB DAC which has two audio outputs, one is pure DAC output and the other one is amplified. The amplified output is currently connected to my speakers (or headphone/ear monitors), so I would like to read the audio signal from the pure DAC output.
Sorry if there is any stupid question, I have never studied electrical engineering, I only know how to do programming.