Hi everyone,
This is my first post, so I'm sorry if I come off as stupid, because I know very little on the subject, but am hoping to learn.
The project I am researching is a lighting circuit for a drum kit. Essentially, what I want to happen is to have a light (presumably a 120v rope light or something similar) to be installed in the kick drum, and light up each time the kick drum beats.
I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on a circuit that could accomplish this?
I was thinking a small amplified microphone as a sound-activated switch, with a capacitor of some sort so that the light comes on and fades out slowly unless activated again, in which case it would come on brightly and dim again, and so on.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

one of the drummers from my old band did something similar and he accomplished it by modding a drum trigger to the rope light. i'm not sure how he did it but it was installed on the kick just as you're planning and it looked really neat onstage. good luck, hopefully someone with more smarts can chime in on how to actually hook the two up

 

How about a simple switch connected to your drum pedal. It can then operate a relay switching the higher voltage required for the lights.