Since posting this I did finally stumble across something that might work... need to sit down and bread board it through still. I'll just need to add5 more colors and take out the 'rainbow' option.
Any opinions on using an analog mic as opposed to an I2S mic for this? He's using an analog in his example.
https://maker.pro/arduino/projects/make-sound-activated-neopixel-rave-goggles-with-arduino