Audio Gate Circuit / frequency filters, too?

[junktl]

I have some cheap Color Organ kits. I'd like to enhance them by placing an Audio Gate on each channel's audio trigger signal. Basically, the current designs do not have sufficient frequency separation nor do they have sufficient trigger thresholds. It all appears to be without discrete action.

The color organs have a low, mid, high (3-channel) or low, mid-low, mid-high, high (4-channel) audio separation into light control channels. The lights' power is varied in accordance to the amount of audio signal for each channel.

The ones that I have seem to have all channels light up with very similar intensity with no apparent frequency band separation.

Short of buying a 4ch audio DSP, are there any other DIY solutions?

I was thinking that I could EQ the audio to emphasize the frequency bands and de-emphasize the frequencies between the bands to improve separation.

However, I'd like to add a GATE to each channel so that the audio only passes through when the level surpasses a threshold. I'd place this gate circuit only on the Low and High bands so that they trigger on the rhythm more crisply.

Anyway, I'm not sure if the effort, parts cost would outway the costs of a DSP. Any thoughts comments or brainstorm ideas are welcome.

Thanks!