So, there's laptops that have built-in LED's that can flash according to music, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5cSRzZE6Q8
If you watch that, you'll be impressed for, perhaps, 30 seconds. Why? Because after the novelty wears off, it's easy to tell that there's no sane order -- The lights /barely/ flash in sync with the music and they don't really symbolize anything. It quickly becomes a random mishmash of color.
The plugin used to operate the LED's can be found here: http://3d.benjamin-thaut.de/?p=14 (Or http://3d.benjamin-thaut.de/Files/file.php?id=6 if'ya want a direct link.) -- Yep, made for Winamp! Sadly there's no source available (that I know of).. Attached is the next best thing; The AlienFX SDK in its entirety (tiny, innit?) and an .xml file containing the addresses the Winamp plugin needs in order to operate on a more recent laptop.
So, I'm posting this /here/ because Milkdrop has some of the best beat detection code I've ever seen. I figure it's easier to rewrite the code for AlienFX than it is to rewrite the code for beat detection without the Milkdrop framework to support it. (Whichever code "Phat_Eo.S. rainbow bubble_mid3" uses is *beyond* epic for this particular scenario already!) On top of that, it'd be nice if this could be merged with Milkdrop somehow, both as an exposed API for preset developers and as a generic always-on thing if a non-AlienFX preset is loaded.
As for what it actually /does/ as far as flashing goes, I really don't have any special requests there. I'd be happy with anything that's an improvement over the random flashing in the video. Even if all the lights were always the same color and just flashed on and off to the beat I'd be outrageously happy, especially if Milkdrop could still run its usual presets at the same time.
In closing I'd like to say that, yes, I know this is a /huge/ request, but I'm hoping somebody out there finds this interesting enough to make it a reality. Of course I'll try to help as much as I can -- I'm not a programmer, but I do have a laptop with AlienFX and don't mind running tests with it.