Wondering if there are any owners of vintage color organs here? We don't seem to have any in the gallery unfortunately.
A color organ, or more officially "audio modulated light", is a decorative light that flashes to music. They were a bit of a fad in the 1970s. Radio Shack was probably one of the biggest sellers of them. Examples:



I wanted to get one, but they are obscenely expensive on eBay, so I'm going to try and build my own instead. I have a kit to build the circuit for a three channel color organ coming from eBay, and a modern string of E12 sockets that I can cut up to fit my needs. And I can get a sheet of diffraction lens, like that used for wraparound fluorescent light fixtures, from Home Depot.

The only thing I've yet to figure out is how the original color organs got the diamond and starburst patterns of light that you can see. Or in some, circles:



One account I read said that it is an inherent effect of the diffraction lens when you put an incandescent light behind it. But I looked at a video of someone's home-made units, and the effect just isn't there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZbqBUxz5jc&ab_channel=Static1701

So my question is, does anyone own one of these who can tell me how they got the effects like in the photos above?

I saw some in an antique store the other day, and wondered what they where, i thought they where normal lights but one of them was flickering alot.

Remember electronic DIY magazines and books in the 80's were full of various circuits for them...

Reminds me of bluetooth speakers with the colored LEDs in them that do similar things.

Yeah the concept was later revived in those Bluetooth speakers that have RGB LEDs that react to music.

There was also the iDog in the 2000s that was another similar concept.

My local electronic components shop still has a few of those kits that you could buy to build your own. You'll need to build your own case for them though.

I have a couple 'color organs' but they're simply a box you plug strings of Christmas lights(or whatever) into. I don't know if I ever posted a pic of one or not.
There's a microphone in it, place it near a speaker & the lights flicker -somewhat- to music.
(used to have one setup in my bedroom, but I put it away at some point & never re-set it up. Still do have one in the yard..that'll go to music from a hidden (both visibly & audibly) speaker, and to thunder!)

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The patterns you see in those pic's are indeed simply created by the plastic lens.
You could also buy what amounted to a box with C7 twinkle bulbs in it. That made the same diamond-type pattern (my mother got us one of those when we were kids..its still around, just saw it the other day. Can't post a pic now, but maybe some point off in the future)