A light modulation system as described herein can be incorporated into a personal or portable electronic apparatus such as a cellular telephone, a digital music player, or the like. The light modulation system controls the activation of light elements, such as light emitting diodes, of the host electronic apparatus in response to one or more analog audio signals available at the host electronic apparatus. The analog audio signals may be obtained from any suitable analog audio path or source in the host electronic apparatus. The light modulation system is compact, inexpensive to implement, and need not rely on digital signal processors for operation.