Make LED brighter

[Wonderdog]

My LED is wired in to show the speed of my rotating speaker simulator (Dano RR).  It is not very bright. 
When I wire the same LED in to show on/off it is plenty bright.  How can I increase the brightness when wiring it in to show speed?

[JKowalski]

The brightness of an LED is determined by the efficiency of the LED and the current going through it. To up the brightness, either buy a more efficient LED (super bright, hi-efficiency, etc.) or, much easier, just lower the value of the current limiting resistor to let more current through it.

[Wonderdog]

It needs more current. 

The problem is I have it piggybacked/tapped into the speed circuit off the IC so it flashes in time with the speed setting of the effect.
There is no current limiting resistor I can change.

[petemoore]

  i can't see the schematic, whether that'd help...
  A transistor buffer output will follow the input voltage drive current and can much less appreciably load the control voltage it's being fed.

[Mark Hammer]

So buy a brighter LED.  They are rated in terms of millicandles, usually abbreviated as 'mcd'.  What we generally refer to as "superbright" come in at a rating of around 2000mcd or higher.  While those rated at 6000mcd are harder to find in some locales and sizes, a rating of 2000mcd is pretty common.

Note as well that when you say "brighter" what you really mean is "more visible".  Visibility is a function of color and contrast between LED and background.  A black bezel can help in increasing contrast between the LED the area surrounding it, often permitting one to get by with less brightness.

[JKowalski]

Give us the schematic, so we can see whats going on with the LED.

If you ever have an LFO you can always either tap it with an LED+resistor to ground or build a quick buffer so as to not interfere with the operation of the circuit.

[Wonderdog]

I am using an 8mm LED becasue it is cool it is so big, but I can't find a high brightness one.  I suppose I could gut it and put a high brightness one in the larger lens.  I do have a black bezel.
I did short the current limiting resistor.

[Wonderdog]

Give us the schematic, so we can see whats going on with the LED.

If you ever have an LFO you can always either tap it with an LED+resistor to ground or build a quick buffer so as to not interfere with the operation of the circuit.

This may be the thing to do:  the effect has several delay sounds running together and in hooking up the led it mutes one of the audio delay lines, making the effect sound less complex.  I installed a switch to go back and forth.

[blooze_man]

i dont know what color the LED is now, but i always use blue LED's. no exceptions. they're way more visible than red, which is a common LED color

[Wonderdog]

i dont know what color the LED is now, but i always use blue LED's. no exceptions. they're way more visible than red, which is a common LED color

It is ORANGE . . . cool