Joe,

There is another approach. Rather than have a frequency based sound to light you could set it up as a chaser with lots of pre-set programmed patterns.

If you then used a low pass filter and then a peak detection circuit you could use the bass beat as a trigger to step through some pre-set patterns This is what I used a few years back when I did something similar when I wanted a light system for my wife's birthday party.



Have a look at my site http://micro-heli.co.uk/ the electronics page contains some PBP code and schematic which might get you started.

The filters were based on the following schematics





Full details on the following web site http://sound.westhost.com/project62.htm