NI Maschine Mikro- Arduino Interaction

Hi everyone,

I'm a Sound Production student and for my degree I wanted to present an installation.

My idea is to use my NI Maschine Mikro to program and trigger a set of led lights according to the sound I'm playing. All of these to be done in 5.1.

I was doing some researches on the web and I found out Arduino could be of help, now, I'm a complete newbie, I do not own an Arduino and I know I will have to do hours and hours of research/tutorial to actually come up with the project. My questions are, is this a feasible approach to use? Would I be able to go from Midi-Arduino-PC-Soundcard-5.1 Setup?

If yes, what version of Arduino would you recommend to buy, considering that the Maschine Mikro is a USB-Midi controller?

Thanks in advance for your help.