Ohmage

Your Sound Blaster X7, in the menu bar and in your pocket.

Ohmage is an independent app for Creative's Sound Blaster X7. It puts the unit's controls where you are: in the Mac's menu bar, and on your iPhone or iPad over Bluetooth.

Switch between speakers and headphones, shape the sound, and see every change the moment it happens, whichever screen or button it was made on.

Creative has ended support for the X7. Its Mac software is an Intel-only build from 2019, and its iPhone app was last updated in 2023 and no longer displays correctly. Ohmage is a native app for today's Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Coming to the Mac App Store and the App Store.

  • macOS
  • iOS
  • iPadOS

Where you are

  • In the menu bar

    Speakers or headphones, SBX, the equaliser preset and Direct mode, one click from the menu bar on the Mac. The window is there for everything else.

  • In your pocket

    The unit finds your iPhone or iPad over Bluetooth. Nothing to pair, nothing to install on the unit, and every control the Mac has.

  • From the next room

    A Mac shares the unit plugged into it. Match six digits once, and it appears on your phone, your iPad, or another Mac.

And what it does there

  • Live with the front panel. Turn the knob or press a button on the unit and the app shows it within a second; change it in the app and the unit's light follows.
  • Shortcuts, Spotlight and Siri. Output, SBX, each effect and Direct mode are actions, so any of them can be a Shortcut, a Spotlight action or a spoken request.
  • The whole effect set. Surround, Crystalizer, Bass with its crossover, Smart Volume with Normal, Loud and Night, and Dialog Plus, each with a strength. Scout Mode silences them all in one move.
  • A ten-band equaliser. Preamp and ten bands from 31 Hz to 16 kHz, Creative's presets included, and the app tells you when the curve you have is one of them.
  • Speakers and the room. Which channels are attached, which pairs are full-range, where the bass goes, and a test tone per channel to find one wired the wrong way round.
  • Direct modes and gain. Take the DSP out of the path for the computer or the optical input, choose the headphone gain for your impedance, and enable high-power amplification with the warnings that go with it.
  • Volume and dynamic range. Volume and mute on the Mac through the system, and Full, Normal or Night dynamic range for Dolby Digital.
  • More than one unit. Over USB, Bluetooth or another machine, each with a row of its own.
  • Built not to break anything. The unit's stored configuration can be rewritten over the same link the app uses. Ohmage never sends those commands, and refuses the whole family they belong to.

Screenshots

These are placeholders rendered from the app's previews against a simulated unit, which is why the unit names are nonsense, a ladybird marks each one, and a Debug tab is showing. Captures from a real unit will replace them.

Mac

A menu bar panel for the frequent things, and a window for configuration. The window's sidebar lists every unit the Mac can see, and the systems sharing one.

Output pane, light appearance.
Output pane, dark appearance.
Output. Headphones or speakers, Direct mode, speaker out, headphone surround, headphone gain, speaker high power and auto standby. Two units in the sidebar, and a system waiting to be set up.
Level pane, light appearance.
Level pane, dark appearance.
Level. Dynamic range for Dolby Digital, and the equaliser: a preset pop-up, a preamp fader and ten band faders from 31 Hz to 16 kHz.
Effects pane, light appearance.
Effects pane, dark appearance.
Effects. SBX Pro Studio and Scout Mode in the header; Surround, Crystalizer, Bass with its crossover, Smart Volume with its mode, and Dialog Plus below, each with a switch and a strength. Bass is greyed because this unit has a subwoofer, so bass management on the Speakers pane handles it.
Speakers pane, light appearance.
Speakers pane, dark appearance.
Speakers. Front, rear, centre and subwoofer, which pairs are full-range, the speaker model, and bass management underneath.
Menu bar panel, light appearance.
Menu bar panel, dark appearance.
Menu bar panel. Output, SBX and equaliser tiles, Direct mode, the effect switches and the preset, without opening a window.

iPhone

The same four panes as tabs. The button in the top corner opens Connections, where systems sharing a unit are paired.

Looking for a Device screen on iPhone, light appearance.
Looking for a Device screen on iPhone, dark appearance.
Looking for a device. What the app shows while it waits for a unit to find it over Bluetooth. This usually takes a few seconds.
Output tab on iPhone, light appearance.
Output tab on iPhone, dark appearance.
Output. Headphones or speakers, Direct mode, headphone surround, speaker out, gain, high power and auto standby, in one scrolling form.
Level tab on iPhone, light appearance.
Level tab on iPhone, dark appearance.
Level. Dynamic range, and the equaliser laid out for a narrow screen.
Effects tab on iPhone, light appearance.
Effects tab on iPhone, dark appearance.
Effects. Scout Mode takes a row of its own above the effects it silences.
Speakers tab on iPhone, light appearance.
Speakers tab on iPhone, dark appearance.
Speakers. Layout and bass management.

iPad

Wide enough for the Mac's sidebar, so units and systems are always in view beside the pane.

Looking for a Device screen on iPad, light appearance.
Looking for a Device screen on iPad, dark appearance.
Looking for a device. The sidebar is empty but for Set Up, which pairs with a system sharing a unit.
Output tab on iPad, light appearance.
Output tab on iPad, dark appearance.
Output. The Mac's layout, with the tabs across the top of the pane.
Level tab on iPad, light appearance.
Level tab on iPad, dark appearance.
Level. Dynamic range and the equaliser.
Effects tab on iPad, light appearance.
Effects tab on iPad, dark appearance.
Effects. SBX and Scout Mode, then the five effects.
Speakers tab on iPad, light appearance.
Speakers tab on iPad, dark appearance.
Speakers. Layout and bass management.

Requirements

A Creative Sound Blaster X71, connected over USB to a Mac, or over Bluetooth to an iPhone or iPad.

Mac macOS 27.
iPhone and iPad iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. The app asks for Bluetooth permission and, to reach a Mac sharing a unit, local network permission.

The X7 Limited Edition has not been tested and may not work.