[sdiy] EL wire = opto compressor?

[Dave Magnuson]

Hi list,

I have a broken Playstation 2 controller here (Pelican Afterglow) that has a 
good sized piece of EL wire in it.  I disassembled the controller and found 
that the high voltage driver is on a tiny seperate circuit board.    Just 
for fun, I connected this driver up to the output of an LFO... and it lights 
up quite nicely.    I can get a nice variation in brightness when varying 
the input voltage from 0v to 12v

So...  any reason not to try to make an opto compressor out of this thing? 
I'm not expecting an LA3A, just a fun grungy mono compressor.   Anyone done 
something like this?

I've never really messed with compression circuits before, but this is what 
I'm thinking:   input signal splits into 2 paths... audio and CV.

CV source is full wave rectified and amplified to 0-12v range which drives 
the EL wire.  I could then add a lag circuit for attack / release.

EL wire is mounted to a photoresistor in a light-proof box.   Photoresistor 
is part of the feedback loop of an opamp amplifier, providing unity gain 
with no light and some attenuation with the EL wire fully lit.

Is this how you would typically accomplish this?   I realize that this is an 
overly simplified description, but I just wanted to see if I'm on the right 
path.  Also... anything special to look for when buying a photoresistor? 
There's a little 5 pack available at Radioshack that I was going to buy to 
experiment with (to get an idea of resistance ranges when applying different 
voltages to the EL wire's driver)

Thanks

Dave Magnuson