I just wasn't satisfied with the tools out there when trying to do my own ABX'ing, and it seemed weird that there was no satisfying tool available given how simple a thing it seems. I'm barely an application coder, but it seemed like a "real" programmer could create a great ABX tool in an afternoon. So, instead of complaining about it I decided to make one. I actually like the foobar plugin a lot, but I found the whole installation of foobar and figuring out how to get to the plugin going pretty cumbersome. If I wanted to suggest on a forum that someone ABX test some files, it was a real pain to explain, and the average non-technical musician couldn't be bothered. It's hard enough to convince people to ABX test files without extra roadblocks.
Plus you had to describe three entirely different methods depending on mac/windows/linux, so the admonitions to "ABX test the files" were usually being ignored. Now we can say "ABX test it -- here's a link to software" and (bugs aside) users can download it and get to testing.
I also think that the audio community needs as much ABX testing as it can get for the sake of a deeper and truer understanding of our tools, given how profound confirmation bias is in audio. I like good audio, and I want the world to have more of it, so if my tool could in some small way help us make progress, that'd be great. At least one major plugin company is using it, which was awesome to learn!
Also, I wasn't aware of any shootout tools, so I wanted to implement that. It's also handy as a convenient "compare files to each other" tool -- i.e. not even for testing or blinding, but just switching between, say, a bunch of versions of a piece of music.
I made a
javascript web version as well... i'm not aware of anyone using it, though, which is unfortunate, because it took like 3 times longer to make than the app.
It is actually much more flexible in terms of shootouts: you can categorize files in a pseudo-database, associate images with files, etc. Maybe I should search around a little to see if anyone has incorporated it...
I would actually love it if a serious application coder would re-implement all the features in a native multi-platform app, support changing/testing multiple sample rates and ASIO/core audio/pulseaudio/whatever, clean up the GUI, support other file formats, etc. There is obviously room for improvement. It's beyond my skill set, unfortunately, and given the maybe $100 people have donated over like 5 years (i'm not complaining), I can't really justify taking the time to learn those skills or develop the app. I'm pretty satisfied with it as it is, though, honestly: it does the job.