QXPlayer

QXPlayer — Part 2. The Design Problem and an Unexpected Inspiration

After the first working low-level audio engine appeared, the next question was the UI.
Copying WinAmp was something I absolutely didn’t want to do.
And even the players that were considered “modern” at the time — Vox, Audirvana — still had very standard, simple interfaces.

The file system element was clear: I wanted it to feel native, just like Finder itself.
But when it came to controls, buttons, and overall visual design, real problems began.
There was no idea that felt “right.”

Then one day I came across a video with some kind of VU meter.
And a thought appeared: “Why not?”

Later I found out that it was actually the display of the AKAI GX-6 cassette deck.
In the very first versions of QXPlayer, it was literally just a screenshot from YouTube.
But something went wrong — maybe the camera quality of the person who recorded that video wasn’t good, maybe the upload crushed the colors — but the final result looked completely different from the original.

Maybe that was for the best.

Then came DSD, the radio browser…
But that part is mostly technical, and probably not too interesting as a story — just implementation details without much drama.

But my next idea, the one I’m working on right now, turned out to be much more interesting — the iOS version of the player.

We all travel.
And sometimes you really want to take your own files with you — your library, your favorite albums — not streaming catalogs.

That was the moment the idea of bringing QXPlayer to iPhone and iPad started to take shape.

👉 More about that — in the next part.