MIDI Out & VU Meters

[Underskor]

Hi there,

What would be the best way to handle several VU meters? Say I am using Traktor to output VU Meter information as CC values for decks A, B, C, D and Master, both left and right channels. That's 10 meters, and depending on the LEDs per meter, almost 80 LEDs.

I could use a BLM, but is there an easier way that doesn't use up almost all of my DOUTs? Arduino-powered breakout board with a shift register for each meter? Is it possible to output 0-127 values with MIOS32? I will admit I am intimidated by the idea of a BLM haha.

Also, I have a (probably silly) question which I think is related to MIDI throughput. Remembering that I would like to output CC values for 10 VU meters, I have done so for a single meter and, to me, it seems like a lot of MIDI action is going on. Multiply this by 10 and I'm wondering if it would cause responsiveness issues. I am still only at the very start of the controller design stage so I just want to make sure I don't design anything that's impractical. :)

I don't have it all connected at the moment so I can't give you a copy of the log to work out bytes/sec etc. :( I had a quick google around for MIDI throughput and only found something from 2001 which said it was something like 3.2kb/s. I don't think I totally understand that figure, or if it's relevant when I'm using MIDI over USB. :S

Thanks,

Tom