Music sync: three modes, and why the wrong one feels broken
Most reports of "music sync doesn't work" are not faults. There are three separate ways to drive the lights from sound, they behave very differently, and the one most people land on first is usually not the one they want.
The three modes
| Mode | What listens | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Music | Nothing listens — the app plays a track from your phone's own music library and drives the lights from the file it is playing | A known playlist you control, with the tightest timing |
| Microphone Rhythm | Your phone's microphone | Quick demos, or reacting to sound the phone can hear |
| External Microphone | A microphone built into the light's own controller | Parties, rooms, permanent installations — anything where the phone should not have to stay put |
"External microphone" does not mean you plug one in
This one causes real confusion, so it is worth being blunt about.
The mode called External Microphone does not require any accessory. It means the microphone that is external to your phone — the one built into the controller itself. Selecting it hands listening duties over to the light.
This is the mode most people actually want, and the one they never find. Because the controller is doing the listening, your phone stops mattering. You can lock it, walk out of the room, or close the app, and the lights keep reacting to the music. Nothing is being streamed over Bluetooth, so there is no lag from the phone.
Not every controller has a built-in microphone. If the External Microphone option is absent from your app, yours does not have one, and your choices are the other two modes.
Which mode do you want?
You are playing music from a streaming service
Use External Microphone if your controller has one, otherwise Microphone Rhythm. The Music mode plays from your phone's local library, so it cannot drive lights from Spotify, YouTube or anything else streaming — this is the single most common cause of "music sync doesn't work". The mode is working exactly as designed; it just is not the mode for streamed audio.
You want the tightest possible timing
Use Music. When the app is playing the file itself it knows what is coming, rather than reacting to sound after it has already happened. Nothing that listens to a room can match that.
You are setting up a party or a permanent install
Use External Microphone. Nobody has to leave a phone on a shelf with the app open, and it survives the phone leaving the room.
Tuning it so it reacts to the music, not the room
The External Microphone screen carries two controls the other modes do not: a sensitivity slider and a set of groove modes. Both screens also show a live level indicator that moves with the sound being picked up — use it, because it tells you what the light is actually hearing before you start changing settings.
Lights flicker constantly, even between tracks
Sensitivity is too high — the controller is triggering on room noise, conversation and air conditioning. Turn it down until the indicator settles when the music pauses. If it never settles, the microphone is picking up something continuous nearby: a fan, a vent, or a speaker cabinet it is resting against.
Lights barely move, or only on the loudest peaks
Sensitivity is too low, or the controller is too far from the source. Unlike your phone, the controller sits wherever the light is installed — which may be across the room from the speakers, behind a TV, or up near a ceiling. Raise sensitivity first; if that is not enough, the microphone's position is the limit, not the setting.
It reacts, but to the wrong parts
Try a different groove mode. The modes weight the incoming sound differently — some follow overall loudness, others respond more to particular parts of the range. Which one feels right depends heavily on the music: a mode that looks great on electronic music with a strong beat often looks flat on acoustic material, and the reverse. This is worth two minutes of experimenting with a track you know well.
Set expectations about timing
Any mode that listens is reacting to sound that has already been produced. There is a detection delay, and then the change has to reach the light. On a strong beat this is close enough that it reads as "in time". On subtle material it can look like the lights are trailing slightly behind.
This is inherent to reacting to sound, not a defect and not something a setting removes. If exact timing matters more than convenience, Music mode is the one that has it.
If nothing happens at all
- Check the light is still connected. Change the brightness. If that does nothing, the connection has dropped and the problem is not the sync mode.
- Check microphone permission. Both microphone modes need it. If the phone denied it at install, the level indicator sits flat and never moves — that flat indicator is the giveaway.
- Watch the level indicator while you make noise. Moving indicator but static lights means it is hearing and not driving — check sensitivity and groove mode. Flat indicator means it is not hearing at all.
- Try the other microphone mode. Switching between phone and controller microphones isolates which one is not picking up.
- For Music mode, confirm the track is local. It plays from your phone's music library. Streaming apps are not visible to it.
Still stuck? Tell us which mode, whether the level indicator moves, and what the light does when you change brightness: contact us.