Yevhen Holota
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prostir zvuku

my own project

Spatial sound mixer

macOS / iOSOpen product
prostir zvuku
Role: Founder, product designer and developerPlatform: Native macOS and iOSScope: Product strategy, UX/UI, motion, development and launch
  • My own product: a nature sound mixer for focus, rest and sleep, on Mac and iPhone.
  • Instead of volume sliders, you place rain, fire, sea and birds around you and build a room out of sound.
  • I did everything: the idea, UX, visuals, motion, native code, monetisation and launch.
  • Saved rooms move between devices through iCloud.
The user’s path
  1. Discover
  2. Onboard
  3. Build a room
  4. Save
  5. Come back
  6. Upgrade
Problem

Sound mixers feel like a mixing desk, not like being somewhere

Most ambient apps are a list of sliders. You tweak numbers, but you don’t feel like you’re in a place, and spatial audio stays hidden behind settings.

  • A row of sliders says nothing about where a sound is.
  • Spatial audio and head tracking exist, but people never find them.
  • Tutorials explain every control and get skipped.
  • Subscriptions for a calm little app feel like a trap.
Research

The product bet: make space itself the interface

  • Started from the interaction model, not the screens: what if a sound is an object you can move?
  • Prototyped on real audio early, so every idea was heard, not just seen.
  • Launched publicly and kept iterating on feedback from Product Hunt and Reddit.

Insights

01

Position is meaning

Closer means louder and more present. Left, right and behind change the feel.

02

Learning by doing beats explaining

People get the model the moment they drag the first sound.

03

Calm products need calm motion

Animation should confirm, not excite.

04

Free has to be truly useful

Trust comes before payment, not after.

Hypotheses

  1. H1

    If sounds are objects on a canvas, people understand a complex audio system without seeing a single parameter.

    Canvas
  2. H2

    If onboarding builds a real room step by step, people learn the model and finish with something useful, not a throwaway tutorial.

    Onboarding
  3. H3

    If each platform gets its own native controls (notch and menu bar on Mac, Lock Screen and Dynamic Island on iPhone), people come back more often.

    Mac and iPhone
  4. H4

    If the free tier is genuinely useful and Pro is one lifetime purchase, people pay without feeling pushed.

    Monetisation
Decisions

Five decisions that shaped the product

DecisionInstead ofWhy
A spatial canvas instead of channels
A list of volume sliders
Distance and direction are easier to feel than numbers
Onboarding starts with a mood and ends with your first real room
A tour of every control
You learn by doing, and nothing is thrown away
Native layouts per platform, shared rooms via iCloud
One shrunk-down UI
Mac is for creating, iPhone is for taking it with you
Restrained motion and soft audio fades
Flashy transitions
It’s a product for focus and sleep
Useful free tier plus Lifetime Pro, handled with RevenueCat
A subscription paywall up front
Value first, then one honest purchase

Native stack: Apple’s audio engine, binaural HRTF, head tracking on supported AirPods, offline library. Motion data never leaves the device.

Design

From the first sound to a room on two devices

H1 · Canvas

Space is the interface

Drag a sound closer or around you and hear the room change.

The macOS spatial canvas combines positioning, the sound library, timer, output, and head tracking in one workspace.
H2 · Onboarding

You learn by building your first room

Pick a mood, get a room, place the first sound yourself.

H1 · Editor · macOS

The full editor, nothing hidden

Canvas, library, timer and output on one surface, from one sound to a layered room.

macOS · complete editor walkthrough
H3 · Mac and iPhone

One room, native on both platforms

Notch and menu bar on Mac. Lock Screen and Dynamic Island on iPhone.

macOS · quick controls
iOS · spatial room
iOS · spatial room
Motion and tech

Motion is feedback, not decoration

Pulses show playback, drags keep the sense of space, fades keep it calm.

iOS · spatial room choreography

Native audio, private by default

  • HRTFHQ binaural
  • AVAudioEngine
  • Head tracking
  • Offline library
  • iCloud sync
  • Universal purchase
Monetisation

Making money without breaking trust

  • The free tier is a real room with spatial audio and head tracking, so people feel the value before paying.
  • Pro is one universal lifetime purchase for Mac and iPhone, no subscription.
  • RevenueCat handles purchases on both platforms, so I could try paywall versions without rebuilding payments.
01

Free

A real canvas, one sound per category, two layers, head tracking, a five-minute timer.

02

Lifetime Pro

One purchase for everything on Mac and iPhone.

03

RevenueCat

Shared purchase logic and paywall tests across platforms.

Result

A product I built on my own that found its audience

  • Shipped on Mac and iPhone, launched with a website, App Store page and community posts.
  • #3 Product of the Day on Product Hunt; the Reddit launch post got 18K views and lots of detailed feedback.
  • Kept iterating after release based on that feedback.
#3
Product of the Day on Product Hunt
18K
views on the r/macapps launch post
2
native platforms, one purchase
View on the App StoreProduct Hunt launchReddit launch post
Conclusions

One person can take a product from idea to a paying audience

  • Strategy, interaction, visuals, motion, native code, monetisation and launch in one shipped product.
  • The win isn’t the feature count. It’s a clear model: build a place around you and take it anywhere.