MP 1,1-5,1 Sound Blaster Z Mac driver?

[Demigod Mac]

Over the weekend I finally upgraded my MacPro5,1 to High Sierra. One interesting difference I noticed is that the system report now recognizes my Sound Blaster Z as an audio device, whereas in Sierra it had shown: "There was an error while gathering PCI device information."

Obviously, Creative doesn't maintain any macOS drivers for their internal sound cards.

But in researching it appears some have gotten Creative chips to work with AppleHDA and VoodooHDA, though information about it working with the PCI card version is iffy and years-old (the discussion tends to center around Hackintoshes that have a Creative CA0132 (Sound Core 3D) chip on the motherboard).

Was wondering if anyone had experience in if it's possible to get a Sound Blaster Z working on a Mac or how the Apple/Voodoo HDA drivers work in general. Even basic stereo audio passthrough via optical digital port would be nice to have, eliminating the need to switch audio interfaces when I go back and forth between macOS and Windows.

 

[MIKX]

Over the weekend I finally upgraded my MacPro5,1 to High Sierra. One interesting difference I noticed is that the system report now recognizes my Sound Blaster Z as an audio device, whereas in Sierra it had shown: "There was an error while gathering PCI device information."

View attachment 855708

Obviously, Creative doesn't maintain any macOS drivers for their internal sound cards.

But in researching it appears some have gotten Creative chips to work with AppleHDA and VoodooHDA, though information about it working with the PCI card version is iffy and years-old (the discussion tends to center around Hackintoshes that have a Creative CA0132 (Sound Core 3D) chip on the motherboard).

Was wondering if anyone had experience in if it's possible to get a Sound Blaster Z working on a Mac or how the Apple/Voodoo HDA drivers work in general. Even basic stereo audio passthrough via optical digital port would be nice to have, eliminating the need to switch audio interfaces when I go back and forth between macOS and Windows.

Innovative thinking ! This is how the outdated Mac Pro got to be so "not-so-outdated" I will follow your post with interest.

 

[orph]

hay got to ask is the Sound Blaster Z a big upgrade over the macpro audio? (in windows)
iv been looking at internal/external sound cards

if there's a patch from the hack side i think it will work, we have been using some of there work to make GPU's work etc

but do backup your OS drive before you do it and know you have a risk of having to reinstall osx + each update may brake it

 

[Demigod Mac]

Main reason I use it is for Dolby Digital Live / DTS Connect encoding via optical/Toslink in Windows (to get 5.1 surround sound in games). You'd need a golden ear to notice a quality difference vs the Mac Pro built in audio via the 3.5mm jacks, but some people can.

Also note, Creative have recently released its successors, the AE-7 and AE-9.

 

[orph]

nice to know, always been happy with the sound but did wonder if there was a big step up with a sound card.
i live in stereo so i think im ok, next amp i get will have optical to cut the analog stages

as your PCI card shows up in sys info can you see it in the midi app?