Hi Louie,
I've deciphered SunnySkyguy's reply to you to a degree, and he makes a very good point, if I've understood the gist of what he's referring to. You may know more about this stuff if you're into music. ADSR.
if you're willing to have a go with a PIC, and this thing is still produced, this may be - in inverted commas - a big step towards a compact solution, to a degree, programming it apart, maybe the company who make it have resources on their web to copy/paste bits from:
https://www.electricdruid.net/datasheets/VCADSR7BDatasheet.pdf
Other links to this type of circuit you could try if you want, or look into, which at first glance require no programming/code snippets but are analogue device-based:
https://www.yusynth.net/Modular/EN/ADSR/index_old.html
https://www.schmitzbits.de/vcadsr.html
https://www.schmitzbits.de/adsr.html
There are loads more descriptive and circuit schematic links on the Internet if you have a search. You'd still need to figure out a suitable input device, whether sensors, transducers, piezo buzzers/transducers, simple robust pushbuttons, or whatever input device looks like it'll work, and adapt the circuit for the output you want, but I hope this stuff gives you some ideas and saves you time and headaches/head-scratching.
Not knowing what you know and don't, just want to point out that putting things together means thinking of the voltage level they can handle max. or the minimum they need as an input, and (at least) the maximum voltage level something can output, and that you may need transistors and relays as nuts and bolts to amplify voltage levels and interface between different power supply voltages or between DC and AC between whatever circuit you put together and the lights if it's a lot of LEDs or some other type of lighting.
If you've fiddled with power audio amplifiers or the like you'll probably have a fair idea of the AC and DC mixture power side of things anyway. Hope it's going well.
- - - Updated - - -
...and more ideas... If you prefer to keep to fairly simple circuits for your project, but don't mind soldering for a week, then things you could look at are:
The 555 timer IC, it is unbelievably versatile and very simple to put together (not always the surrounding circuitry, but the timer itself is), and there and - possibly literally - thousands of circuits all over the Internet you can use it in (type "555 circuits" or similar into a search engine).
Logic ICs (maybe, but not necessarily, combined with something like the CD4017) are also a way of doing what you want to but may end up being very large circuits - analogue...
Logic gates often come in four to a chip. AND gates, OR gates, XOR gates, etc, can be used separately or combined to make interesting outcomes, and you can get 2, 3, 4 gate devices.
NOT gates, inverters can be a handy "get round a sticking point" device if you need something to be off when it should be on and on when it should be off, and maybe Schmidt triggers also help to avoid unwanted responses if you're using drums and sound activated trigger devices. Buffers can be used to turn one input into up to ten outputs, with limitations you'd have to read about, like all ICs.
Switch debouncing can be done with a resistor and a capacitor in parallel between the input trigger and the triggered device, especially where pushbuttons are concerned; there's often no need for horrendously complex debouncing circuits using ICs in my limited experience, in fact some of the IC debounce circuits are far worse at debouncing than a 1M resistor and a 10nF capacitor in parallel.
Besides recommending looking at OpAmp building blocks, as they are also useful tools and very versatile, Window Comparators to limit what triggers when,
I can't think of anything else.