Conky & Ubuntu - music visualization (music bars)?
Solution 1:
I think it is possible, using PulseAudio. I don't know how to go about it fully, but here is a utility I found that'll help you get the amplitudes - I suppose you could then find something to convert that into conky charts.
Solution 2:
I know it has been quite a while since you posted this, however I found a great CLI visualizer the other day: https://github.com/dpayne/cli-visualizer
Now, this does not solve your update interval issue of course, but you still might find it as interesting as I do.