Music controlled leds!

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi!
Im thinking of doing a mask in transparent plastic in my 3d printer and use this to house some LEDs like these: Diffused RGB 5mm LED (25 pack) : ID 302 : $12.50 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits
What I want is:

  1. Make the LEDs change brightness to music/sound. So they pulse with music.
  2. Have a button to change the color
  3. Have a button to turn off.

I've never worked with arduino before and dont really know where to start.
Any guidance with this, what stuff to buy and what stuff to read?
Cheers

2

Try these Tutorials at:
www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/BuiltInExamples

Button: Use a pushbutton to control an LED.
Fade: Demonstrates the use of analog output to fade an LED.
Fading: Use an analog output (PWM pin) to fade an LED.
Analog In Out Serial: Read an analog input pin, map the result, and then use that data to dim or brighten an LED.

A pre-made microphone kit:

Look up "Arduino Color Organ " on the Internet.

You could start by reading the voltage from the wiper of a potentiometer (other ends to +5V and Gnd) to get brightness and color working (use the pot to to simulate a changing music level) and then work on reading the microphone output.

Start simple, understand how it works, then add functionality.