I did some research on common DJ software, some of them have at least a MIDI clock output (e.g. Traktor). This is actually oversized (broadcasting a single byte over IP would be enough) but I looked further into MIDI and found there is also a MIDI over IP implementation, however it uses a rather sophisticated RPT protocoll which requires bidirectional communication…seems to be dead end. i found another project which uses a MIDI lookback device (freeware) and then introduce it into a freeware PC dmx control software (PC dimmer) …this software on the other end can output artnet. ok maybe some other DJ software can do this as well. It all gets pretty complicated again. Is there not a simple way of getting beats out of a software music player that has inbuilt beat detection (like those DJ programs have) already? Detecting beats on the arduino seems to be “wrong” for me as it will use processor time etc.
Stefan mentioned above a TAP function. Is that available anywhere?
Thanks
sorry for “spamming” here i just want to share that i found a way even if its rather complicated:
I am using Traktor2 as DJ software. It supports a MIDI Clock output. MIDI clock means, it outputs essentially 24 impulses per “beat”. Traktor2 has a sync button which introduces a longer break and starts with the impulses again on an actual beat. (otherwise you have no idea where in the 24-impulse cycle you are). I am using LoopBe1 as a virtual MIDI device. It feeds the “signal” into Hairless Midi to Serial tool. It ready the MIDI and outputs one byte per impulse on the serial port. THe next(!) tool I am feeding this into is COM2TCP…it creates a virtual COM port and sends the bytes on an unformatted TCP byte stream…I am listening to that stream on one of my linux boxes I have always on in my network just with a small self-written C++ application (piping the data in there via netcat) …there it counts the 24 cycles, processes the sync pause, and gives out just the actual beats as “B” characters, which I am then piping into another netcat that actually connects to my Arduino YUN, where it is used by the Arduino with a sample FastLED application that just lets an LED blink to the beat.
Thanks for describing the whole setup! Not spamming at all-- I think it’s great to share this level of detail of one pretty rich solution.
And … netcat FTW! Dan and I have amusing ‘family ties’ to nc, and it’s fun to see it show up here.
@Mark_Kriegsman That worked great! Thanks again. 
This code is awesome. Big fan of your work.
I cannot seem to get either of the disco sketches to compile. Is FastLED 3.1 the same as the message I see when I compile “FastLED version 3.001.001”
Could you paste the “verbose compiler output” into a pastebin and post the link here? I’ll help as much as I can from there.
Oh… correction, I also tried 3.1.0, no luck.
Thank you; I’ll take a look this evening. Do other FastLED sketches work for you?
yes… everything but the two Disco sketches you shared. I really love the Marquee sketch.
are you using a version of FastLED straight out of github? Thanks