So I've made good progress on my live chip set. Performed at 2 open mics last month, set up some social media for people to follow, playing at my first actual show this Friday! I think having live visuals of some sort could really elevate my performance, and make me feel less awkward during sections where my gameboy is doing most the work and I'm just standing there.

What are some ideas for live visuals? Ideally, I want something that...
1. Does not require a laptop
2. Responds to the music
3. Displays from my CRT
4. Isn't insanely expensive

I found out about this device called EYESY Visual Synth and it looks like it would be perfect, but it's out of stock and really expensive. Does anyone know of similar devices or DIY solutions (i have a raspberry pi idk if I can use it for something)?

You could look into fractal rendering stuff, I've never worked with a raspberry pi before (I'm just finishing up an Arduino project right now, never use them. Ever.) but I assume it couldn't be that hard to write/ steal/ whatever a simple program that draws fractals to the screen.

You could route one or more of the channels to the pins on it and use that to modulate color or other rendering settings. Admittedly there's a metric fuckton of tools out there but your requirement of "no laptop" is the major constrictor here, at least IMO.

1. So there's a microcontroller project out there called the pixelmusic 3000 that would probably be just what you're looking for. It uses the "propeller" which was sort of hyped in make magazine back when that was an actual good mag but you don't seem to hear about it much now so idk how available it is. This guy seems to have archived the project and if you wanted to do it I might be able to find and scan the OG article -> https://ctrl-alt-rees.com/2020-11-26-pixelmusic-3000-modern-atari-video-music-clone-parallax.html

2. The really quick and dirty solution is to hook your audio signal right up to the neck of a CRT and modulate it somehow with a lo-gain amp so you can get the display size right. Instant shitty but cool looking osc graphics, but presupposes a certain level of comfort working around things that can kill

3. I've seen a fair bit lately about using el cheapo a/v converters to make feedback loops, and then injecting noise from your audio signal somehow to make them... do stuff. E.G. plug a HDMI-Component into a Component-HDMI for infinite troll science power and maybe injecting your signal into acouple different pins until it looks the coolest. I don't have any good links for that off the top of my head but I do remember seeing some super impressive results with basically 0% level of technical chops required and it would cost under $40 I imagine

4. If you wanted to go truly retro there is always the tried and true method of getting a guy to move clear plastic and various oily substances around on an overhead projector