is Creative Sound Blaster Mac compatible?

No, it isn't unless sometime in the future they're willing to create Mac OS X drivers and they haven't done that for the one board of theirs made for Macintosh.

I don't know specifically about that Creative product, but I do know that most USB audio devices are natively supported by OS X through the builtin drivers. You likely wouldn't gain control over specific settings for individual channels unless Creative developed mac specific drivers however; but if it was hooked to the mac, the mac would see it in the Sound control panel and you could set it for the output.

If you are looking to enhance your audio output options and want mac specific drivers, I suggest looking into M-Audio and their products. I have the Revolution 7.1 in my G4 tower, and the Sonica Theatre on my G4 PB. Both work great (although drivers sometime don't work after an OS update; simple trash and reinstall fixes it) and really sweetens the experience if you view a lot of media with your mac.

bousozoku said:

No, it isn't unless sometime in the future they're willing to create Mac OS X drivers and they haven't done that for the one board of theirs made for Macintosh.

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Wouldn't it be possible to write drivers for it anyway though? I mean even operating systems like AmigaOS can have third party developers write drivers for it wouldn't the same be possible on OSX, or is the driver part of the OS (somehow) off limits for regular developers?

Well, for my PB, I have those Creative 6.1 speakers connected to the M-Audio Sonica using the analog outs. For the G4, the digital out is connected to a Pioneer reciever. Anyway, if you can't find M-Audio (they are a pretty big brand, not as big as Creative, but big none-the-less, and they were just bought out by AVID a few weeks ago), then I would suggest going to a store that has a good return policy and pick up the Creative product. If it works–great. If not–just return it.

It shouldn't be that expensive to begin with, and if you lose a few bucks even for a small restocking fee (hopefully find a store that has no restocking fee if possible), at least it wouldn't be that bad. In the past, I have even been able to convince a store manager at a place that had a restocking fee, that I wanted to buy this product that wasn't listed as mac compatible, and if I tried it and it didn't work, would he wave the fee, and he agreed.

As far as the drivers, I do believe Apple has written in rudimentary support for some Creative USB devices, mainly because the devices themselves use a standard USB audio profile and board. Any board that conforms to these specifications should theoretically work natively under OS X. Its whether or not you want plain output, or specific control over the output as to whether manufacturer drivers are needed or not.

Eric_Z said:

Wouldn't it be possible to write drivers for it anyway though? I mean even operating systems like AmigaOS can have third party developers write drivers for it wouldn't the same be possible on OSX, or is the driver part of the OS (somehow) off limits for regular developers?

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It's certainly possible to write the drivers, if Creative would be cooperative. In 3 or 4 years, apparently, they weren't or no one cared.

Of course, producing a card with FourPoint sound instead of Dolby Digital 5.1 was their mistake. It wasn't the Mac community's mistake for not buying it.