Sound Blaster Z is missing EAX environment effects in the Control Panel

Sound Blaster Z is an incredible card, and environment effects are the most important thing I look for.
Sound Blaster Z supports EAX 5.0. So where did the EAX settings in the SBX Pro Studio Console go?
For example, I'm unable to choose "Concert Hall" or "Stone Corridor" or "Amphitheater" environmental effects.
Was this intentional? Should I buy a Sound Blaster X-Fi card? As far as I know, X-Fi cards are not missing EAX settings in the control panel. But it really doesn't make sense that Sound Blaster Z is missing EAX settings in the control panel if it is a more advanced sound card and supports EAX 5.0.
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Hello Carlo . I have 2 sound blaster card in PC. X-fi titanium fatality and ZxR. My Windows is 8.1 64bit and i install Creative_alchemy_1.45.02 and EAX 5.0 effects works great on both soundcards.. But you need configure Alchemy to .exe files of games. Hope this help.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLj9obfMppk

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[size="4" color="#0000ff" face="Century">?[size="4" color="#0000ff">Greetings,[size="4" color="#0000ff">?[size="4" color="#0000ff">I now own a Audigy SE for my Small Form Factor PC, The last time I had a creative Card it was a Sound Blaster Li've 5.[size="4" color="#0000ff">?[size="4" color="#0000ff">There use to be a ton of EAX Effects settings you could choose from to record yourself like a chipmunk,male to female,female to male,zeus, and many more. However these dont seem to be available in the EAX Software I have. Where can I get more effects to download that I can add to the existing EAX Control Panel?[size="4" color="#0000ff">?[size="4" color="#0000ff">Thanks

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32-Bit Professional Quality Effects Engine
? Creative's Audigy? patented effects processor
? Support for real-time digital effects like reverb, chorus, normalizer, pitch shifter, or distortion across any audio source
? Capable of processing, mixing and positioning audio streams using up to 3 available hardware channels
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High Definition Audio Quality
? Playback of 64 audio channels, each with its own independent sample rate
? 24-bit Analog-to-Digital and Digital-to-Analog conversion
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? Supports Sony/Philips Digital Interface (SPDIF) input and output of up to 24-bit/96kHz quality
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EAX?ADVANCED HD?, Advanced Audio and 3D Audio Technology
? Optimized user-selectable settings for headphones, two, four or six speakers and external A/V amplifiers
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? Hardware acceleration of EAX ADVANCED HD for games
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SB394 Connectivity
? High speed connection to IEEE? 394-enabled devices with up to 400Mbps transfer rate
? Interconnection of up to 63 devices for peer-to-peer communication
? SB394 Certification Program thoroughly tests and certifies participating vendors' 394-enabled devices with Sound Blaster Audigy for optimal performance and ease of use
? Hot-plug support for ease of connecting or disconnecting external devices
Realistic Wave-Table Synthesis
? Creative's Audigy music synthesis engine
? 64-voice hardware polyphony with Creative's patented 8-point interpolation technology that reduces distortion to inaudible levels
? Uses SoundFont? technology for user-definable wave-table sample sets
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MIDI Interface/Joystick Port
? Support for analog and digital or DirectInput? game devices
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? Analog / Digital Out (Analog Center & Subwoofer / 6-channel SPDIF Output)
? Line in
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Sound blaster Audigy 2zs platinum setup with creative inspire 5.1 digital 5

what should the setup be for the sound blaster Audigy 2zs platinum and the reati've inspire 5. digital 5500 because with the decoder in i only get center fl fr on games. i dont get sound from the rear speakers.but when i take the decoder out and just plug the 3 leads straight into the back of my sound card i get 5. any help plz.i done a thx sound test with the decoder in it does fl i can hear it but i can hear the center as well
and no sound comes out on the 2 rear speakers when doing the test.but when puting the 3 cables straight into the back of the sound card i runed the test and i could hear all the speakers fine even the rear speakers any help plz is this ment 2 happen or do i have to change some settings thanks for any help plz help me thanks.

I Have had a problem for ages. I have the Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and Inspire 5. digital 5500.
I have copied the advice I received/didnt recieve from creative.
Best of luck
Dear Martin
Thanks for your reply
I am sorry for the problem you are facing.
To achieve outputs from all the speaker during speaker test, you will need to have an analog connection, or digital DIN connection.
That will be possible if you connect the three line out jacks on your soundcard, to the three audio input (analog jacks->green,black,orange) on your speaker, if it has this connection. Or, you may connect them using Digital DIN, if they have this connection.
If you are using digital connection (coaxial, optical), there will be no way to achieve sound output from all the speakers during 5. speaker test, as they carry stereo signal.
Best Regards
(Mod Note: Name Removed)
Creative Customer Support Services
Creative Labs Europe:
Original Message Follows:
Hi
I understand you must be busy, so no problem.
No I do not hear EAX when in Pro-logic mode. I only hear (depending on the game in question)
Half life two: front left-right and centre. NO rears
Fear: Front, left, right, & centre. No rears
Farcry Front left, right & centre. No Rears
When I run your speaker test HISSSSS, No Rears, no front left or right
Beats me?
Regards
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: CLE Customer Support [[email][email protected]]mailto:[email protected][/url]]
Sent: 24 January 2006 5:44
To: Martin
Dear Martin
I apologize for the delay on the answer.
If you select Dolby Prologic mode on the decoder, are you able to listen
the game audio, with EAX, in all of the speakers?
Regarding to the optional bay dri've, you can purchase it from ou
Best Regards
(Mod Note: Name Removed)
Original Message Follows:
Hello
Your email was helpful, unfortunately, not for my unit, you see I would
have
connected the Jack leads in by now if the inspire had Jack lead inputs
as
you describe
Please don't think I am being sarcastic, but from reading the
correspondence
below it would seem as if your department is having difficulty
understanding
my problem.
Also it would seem your department doesn't have the necessary technical
information on your very own product, so to help with your dilemma I
have
taken photos of the input/outputs on the Inspire unit.
You will clearly see the inspire has no inputs other than Coaxial and
Optic.
This leaves me back to my last post. I think the solution would be for
me to
purchase the correct processor, which would have come with the original
sound card had I not been a little tight on the money front.
I have attached a photo of the sound card with the processor, I would
love
to buy this processor but find myself unable to locate this product on
your
web site. Would you possibly be able to send me the correct link to this
item so I can buy this Processor Please?
Kind regards
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: CLE Customer Support [[email][email protected]]mailto:[email protected][/url]]
Sent: 8 January 2006 0:3
To: Martin
Subject: RE: CLE -
Dear Martin
Thanks for your reply
Your soundcard is Audigy 2 ZS
Your speaker is Creative Inspire 5. Digital 5500
You will need to have a 3:3 cable(with the color green, black, orange)
to connect your soundcard to your speaker, to achieve the 5. effects
with games.
Below is the connection:
- Connect line out jack of Audigy 2 ZS
to 'Front' of Creative Inspire 5. Digital 5500 using the green color
connection
- Connect line out 2 jack of Audigy 2 ZS
to 'Rear' of Creative Inspire 5. Digital 5500 using the black color
connection
- Connect line out 3 jack of Audigy 2 ZS
to 'Center/Subwoofer' of Creative Inspire 5. Digital 5500 using the
orange color connection
Once you have done the correct connection, play the game DOOM3.
Ensure you have selected either the EAX or surround option in the game
settings.
Does it work?
Best Regards
(Mod Note: Name Removed)
Creative Customer Support Services
Creative Labs Europe
Original Message Follows:
You have lost me. Your sound card clearly states that I can have EAX
surround decoding from the sound card I have purchased.
All of the games on your web site claim to give me an environmental
effect
that will blow my mind, hence EAX.
All I have done wrong is NOT buying your decoder that comes with the
sound
card. My mistake.
All I want to do is re-address this issue and buy the correct
decoder/processor.
Can you point me to the correct link on your web site so I can buy the
correct decoder/processor?
As for the PCM out of the above cables, this foxes me as my other
equipment
only use Optical cabling on my Lexicon processor and from that I have DD
7., DTS 7. and meridian 5. lossless.
My issue is more to do with NO EAX from the rear and centre channels
while
in-game.
Kind regards
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: CLE Customer Support [[email][email protected]]mailto:[email protected][/url]]
Sent: 6 January 2006 09:3
To: Martin
Subject: RE: CLE - Technical Support Request (KMM887805I6636L0KM)
Dear Martin
Thanks for your reply
All commercial digital connection eg. optical or coaxial cable will only
carry PCM stereo signal. If you want to output the signal to a surround
5. with extra EAX environment effects, it will not be possible at all
since it is only restricted to stereo channel signal.
As per current industry limitations, we are bound to follow the standard
one-signal output for all our SPDIF and Optical output jacks. This is
something that is currently shared by all vendors for all products.
Please note that all games are not dolby digital, even they are , it
will require certain motherboard to encode it to dolby digital signal,
which our soundcard does not support.
You can only use analog connections to gain true 5. surround for
gaming..
email.
Best Regards
(Mod Note: Name Removed)
Creative Customer Support Services
Creative Labs Europe
Original Message Follows:
Hi Joong
I don't fully understand your email, but I do get the gist of what
you're
saying and understand I need to connect the analogue cable to fully
appreciate the sound in EAX.
Would you be able to tell me what product I could buy from your
catalogue
which would marry up with the sound card I have, as I understand now
that
the Inspire 5. will not do the job.
Kind regards
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: CLE Customer Support [[email][email protected]]mailto:[email protected][/url]]
Sent: 6 January 2006 04:00
To: Martin
Subject: RE: CLE - Technical Support Request (KMM8875697I6636L0KM)
Dear Martin
Thank you for the reply.
Computer games written with support for 3D audio do not require a Dolby
Digital Interacti've Content Encoder (DICE) to output multichannel sound,
with no exceptions. Sound devices that support the real time encoder
technology from Dolby will simply receive the multichannel wave file
output and encode it in real time to a somewhat modified Dolby Digital
bitstream. Creative does not support the Dolby Digital Interacti've
Content Encoder on any of its sound cards.
The only difference between a Sound Blaster card and an audio card that
has a real time encoder, is that you can make a one-wire, digital
connection from your audio card to your home theater receiver and enjoy
discrete multichannel sound from the game. However there will be a
continuous, slight delay, known as "latency", as the encoder is creating
and transmitting the bitstream, and of course the compression scheme
being used is "lossy" (i.e. not bit-accurate).
If you want to enjoy 3D audio in 3D enabled PC games in multichannel
surround sound with a Sound Blaster card, it is recommended that you
connect the analog outputs of the sound card directly to the analog
inputs of the receiver. This will require 3 cables for 5. surround
sound, one for front right and left, one for rear left and right, and
another one for front center and subwoofer. Though it requires more
cables than a real time encoder system, it will not have any latency
issues. When connecting PC audio to a home theater receiver, Creative's
latest sound cards such as Sound Blaster Audigy, Sound Blaster Audigy 2
are likely to provide higher quality audio than any Dolby Digital real
time encode system available for the PC today.
Please retain all the previous correspondence when replying to this
email.
Best Regards
(Mod Note: Name Removed)
Creative Customer Support Services
Please do not use this link to submit technical queries
Original Message Follows:
Hi
One particular game which has "in-game" DD is Farcry; I used this as my
benchmark disc for DD and to push my Nvidia 7800 GTX GPU's (I have tried
it
on friend's machines and they get the full surround effect so I Know
this
version is ok. I also have ALL of the game patches & updates.
I would like to point out that while playing Doom 3, Half Life 2,Fear,
Colin
McRae rally 04,FIFA 2004,Meddle of honour pacific assault, Rome, Shadow
ops, All these games have EAX HD, which is enabled within the options
menu
"in-game", But I do not get ANY use out of the rear's and I might as
well
listen in stereo.
No, inspire 5500 does not automatically switch while "in-game" when DD
is present as you would expect, but does if it was a Movie, which makes
me
think the DD stream isn't getting to the processor.
I originally thought I could put all this to rest if I could buy the
control
panel that would have come with the Sound card if I had not tried to
save
money, but every time I search your accessories site I get completely
lost,
it really isn't user friendly, the sub-menus are very time consuming and
point you in the wrong direction because they are not categorised as Joe
public would understand
I downloaded your TEST Movies and creative demo player utility, ran it
but
still no EAX HD or DD if that were present.
I want to put this card and Processor into my boys computer (which is
the
same Spec as mine and I will update to the FX series, but I am unwilling
if
I cannot find a logical reason why this set-up cannot work first.
Would it have anything to do with the pins on the Digital out on the
sound
card plug, the one I bought and was attached to the last email? Only
sending
certain channels down to the processor?
Regards
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: CLE Customer Support [[email][email protected]]mailto:[email protected][/url]]
Sent: 5 January 2006 08:09
To: Martin
Subject: RE: CLE - Technical Support Request (KMM8868993I6636L0KM)
Dear Martin
Thanks for your reply
Your speakers are fine as you mentioned that there is sound from all the
speakers when you are playing movie.
May i know what game are you playing when there are no sound from the
rear speakers?
Have you done the appropriate settings in the game to achieve the 5.
sound?
Is there any game patches that you will need to update?
Does the Dolby Digital LED light up when you are playing the game?
Please retain all the previous correspondence when replying to this
email.
Best Regards
(Mod Note: Name Removed)
Creative Customer Support Servic
Original Message Follows:
Hi
I am sorry; I should have said the Inspire 5. was model number digital
5500
S/N SW330030026.
The inspire has these connection on the back of the processor
>From top/back of unit
Audio Outputs
Front
Rear
Centre/subwoofer
Audio inputs
Audio line in
Coaxial
Optical
DIN
The Din to a remotely located Subwoofer which has the speaker leads
inputting into it. Plus power.
Attached is the creative view of the controls menu and I have attached
the
invoice I was sent, it shows the lead I was told to fit.
As I said, I can now hear DD5. while within a movie from ALL speakers
BUT
no sound from rears during IN GAME DD5.
I do not use this PC for films only games.
Regards
Martin
If you are having a digital connection, it is normal for only get only
front left/right is you use the speaker test option.
http://us.creative.com/support/kb/article.asp?l=3&sid=4858
Speaker test only outputs from two front speakers?
You mentioned that that you are unable to get any sound from the rear
speakers when playing game right? May i know are you using a digital
connection? May i know what speaker settings have been made under
Creative Speaker settings?
Do get back to me on the above.
Thanks
Original Message Follows:
Operating System: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Creative Model Number: SBO 350
Computer Brand/Model: home made
Processor/CPU: AMD 64
Memory: Gig DDR 4
BIOS Type/Revision: 5. 39
System Board/Chipset: ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
Detailed Problem Description:
I have the above Sound card.
I also own Inspire 5. amp/processor
I Wanted to save money by connecting above sound
card to amp/processor
Connections on sound card made life very difficult
I contacted Creative for help. you told me to buy
an RCA to mini jack cord which also has other connections, from your
web site, (I tried to find
the product number for you, but your sub-menu
system is so poor I couldn't locate the RCA/mini
3.5 /to phono link for you) this cord connects
directly into the digital in, on the sound card (3.5 Mini jack) to the
coaxial input on the
inspire 5. amp/processor.
I have enabled ALL sp-diff settings and digital in
setting on every program/utility/kitchen sink and all.
I have an SP-Diff wire from DVD burner to creative
sound card, and yes its enabled and digital only
is selected.
I can play a DVD and see the inspire 5.
automatically change from Pro-logic to Dolby
digital when it See's an AC-3 stream.
when I try and play ANY game you say has EAX
,2,3,4 I cannot get any sound from my rear
speakers (see above in Dolby Digital ALL speakers
work correctly)
when I enter the set-up menu within the creative
software you supply with the sound card and select
5. speaker, digital only, test the speakers via
the white noise function, all i hear is left and
right noise. no centre, no rears.
I phoned you tech support line, the boy on the
phone didn't have much of a clue about your
product and I had to tell him what connections sit
on the inspire 5. series amp/processor.
I want to build another PC for my son, I want to
add the FX series sound card and amp, but i am not
willing to buy anything until i feel you have
helped me to solve this problem first.
please can you help, I am at the end of my tether
with this sound card.
kind regards
Martin Waite
Message Edited by Daniel-CL on 0-28-2006 :36 PM

[Sound Blaster ZX]Control Panel takes 6 MINUTES to load and is nearly unusable?!

All,
Yesterday I took the plunge and picked up a Sound Blaster ZX to replace my old Audigy Platinum. Unfortunately I've been met with a series of problems that leave me with a bad taste in my mouth about my purchase.
The driver install seemed to go well though it was a little disconcerting when the 'Check for update' button in the auto update tool that runs right after install was grayed out. I noticed that I was not getting sound out of the 5.1 analog inputs that I had connected up to my Logitech Z680 speaker system. So I checked the system tray and there was a new SB icon there, that was clearly a utility to get to the configuration. Knowing this was probably the right place to start fiddling with the settings, I clicked it. And waited. And waited. And waited some more.
Strange I thought, so I checked the Windows task manager and located the Sound Blaster control panel in the list of running processes. I waited another minute or so and still nothing was displaying. So I killed the process in task manager, located the shortcut to the SB ZX control panel in the start menu and launched it. Again with the waiting. I immediately took to google and started researching a potential problem with this card.
As I was searching and had forgotten that I had launched the Control Panel, it suddenly showed up on my screen. Wow I thought, that took a while to load. I then proceeded to try to navigate the various areas of the Control Panel application. I was immediately concerned when I noticed that the app was not responsive and appeared to be frozen. I decided to patiently wait to see if it would wake up. Fortunately it did, though only after waiting for several minutes. I then attempted to close the Control Panel app, which it did after several more minutes of waiting.
I thought maybe there was some anomalous process running so I decided to try the Control Panel from a fresh boot. After my machine had started up, I clicked the SB icon in the system tray again, only this time I was going to time it. I recorded that it took 6 FULL MINUTES from the time I clicked the icon until the application displayed on my screen. Further, the lag of switching between the various areas of the application was as high as 3-4 minutes. In essence this software is completely unusable.
I decided to try the TOSLINK connections between my speaker system and the soundcard to see if it would respond better. I set the mixer settings(via the built in Windows mixer) and I could get it to produce sound albiet only in two channel stereo. Progress, or so I thought. So I switched back to the analog connections and there was no difference in the response of the control panel. I had found some instances where an onboard or video card based HDMI audio driver might interfere with the card. I had long since disabled the on board sound of my Asus P5Q Pro motherboard via the BIOS so there were no drivers hanging around from it. I then took a look at the device manager and disabled the ATI High Defintion Audio device that was likely part of my SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 video card. This had no effect, I was still getting no sound from my speakers and the interface is abysmally lagged.
I then took the following steps to no avail:
Uninstall all Soundblaster ZX drivers and software
Restart machine
Install the updated Soundblaster ZX software from the Creative Support site: http://support.creative.com/Products...T=CategoryID:1
Nothing I have tried has resolved the issue with the virtually unusable lag that occurs when trying to run the Control Panel and/or configure the Soundblaster ZX or the amount of time it takes to start up.
Anyone experienced this and know of a fix or a remedy? I really want to enjoy this sound card.
**UPDATE**
I just wanted to post up and say that I solved this issue by first uninstalling all drivers for both the SB ZX and my Radeon graphics card. I then used Driver Fusion(http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion) to perform a registry/file cleanup on all files associated with AMD graphics cards and Creative sound cards. Then I installed the drivers & software for the SB ZX from the CD that came in the box. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the software was responsive and the hardware was fully functioning. I then installed the software for my Radeon card however this time, I selected a custom install and chose NOT to install the HDMI audio driver. I don't know if this was key or not but at any rate, after the graphics card drivers and software was installed I am happy to report that the SB ZX software remained responsive and fully functioning.
I then updated the SB ZX software to the version linked above(1.0.22) from the version that ships on the CD - 1.0.13 and strangely the Cinematic tab disappeared from the Pro Studio control panel. Some research revealed that this tab is dependent on the Creative Labs Extras which seemed to have gotten nuked during the update. I was able to bring back the Cinematic tab by re-installing the extras from the CD, however it only installed the Dolby Digital Live component. DTS connect is still missing. I am going to do a little more research to see what I can do to get it back.
Hope this helps someone who runs into this same predicament.

Any news about the SoundBlaster Zx Linux drivers? Currently, there's no way to get even the most basic sound of it on Linux.

Sound Blaster E1

This is my first amp and for some reason when I plug into it I only get sound through my left headphone I went into the control panel and messed with the setting but I don't know if it is getting saved to the amp or not because it doesn't seem to change the sound at all. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hello Carlo . I have 2 sound blaster card in PC. X-fi titanium fatality and ZxR. My Windows is 8.1 64bit and i install Creative_alchemy_1.45.02 and EAX 5.0 effects works great on both soundcards.. But you need configure Alchemy to .exe files of games. Hope this help.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLj9obfMppk

Goodbye from a 20-ish year user of Sound Blaster Cards

Today I removed my sound blaster card from my PC. This is the first time since I was brought a sound blaster Ver .0 in 990-ish that I have not had a Sound Blaster card in my main performance / gaming PC. I have had a Sound blaster V .0, V 2.0, PRO 6, AWE64, Li've! and an Audigy 4. I only did not get an XFI, as I was waiting for the PCI-E version and by the time it arri'ved I was already contemplating the action I took today, so did not bother to pick one up.
Why did I remove it. Well none of the games I am playing and none of the games that are coming down the pipe (as far as I can tell) deri've any advantage from there being any type of sound blaster card on board. Also I wanted to not have down sampled audio when watching Blu-ray movies. My motherboards on-board sound card provides a protected sound path so supports this functionality.
Until recently needing a sound blaster card on-board especially for games (my number factor), was a no-brainer. But with the death of EAX and hardly any take up of openal in recent games a motherboard on-board solution offers that same level of performance, in fact better in some scenarios.
I think this is a shame and that Creative could have done more to combat this. But it seems to me that soundcards are no longer that important to Creative anymore, now that they have moved into audio players and other devices. There has arguably not been a new architecture since the XFI's release in 2005 (I don't consider the move to PCI-E to be a new card or architecture).
So thanks for the memories Sound Blaster and I hope we cross paths in the future, but for now with much regret it is au revoir.

: Same here. Well, not exactly the same ...
In all my computers I've been using SB cards for 5 or 20 years, one of them having an extra Turtle Beach card which is the only exception. I also bought Creative speakers (incl. Cambridge Soundworks), headphones and other stuff. I'm still using 5 or 6 computers all with Creative cards (mainly Audigy2) on a regular basis, everything is still working fine. In fact, I used to be happy with Creative products ?...
... until I got my latest PC.
I ordered an extra X-Fi extreme audio in addition to the the built-in Realtek sound chip - for two reasons: supposed better sound quality and the Media Source software pack that usually comes with the SB cards. I've always been using the Media Source Player for instant recordings ... and I saved the sound files as MP3 (now you see where I'm getting to ...)
I learnt that now Creative wants to make me purchase an extra mp3 audio pack for the new media source player, $ 9.90 (which is just a few Euros in my part of the world ?), just to get the same functionality that my older media source players had. Extra payment for the most important sound format of our times?
No. I've decided to stop buying Creative products. Just because of this simple rip-off. I will never again buy anything with Creative (or Cambridge Soundworks) label.
Surprisingly enough, I'm more than happy with my brand new Logitech speakers ... the first purchase after I discovered the missing mp3 functionality of the latest Creative player.
Honestly, I doubt that this policy will pay off in the end ...
(this is just a customer feedback - I know that Creative doesn't care if they lose one customer)

"Sound Blaster Audigy Fx" and stereo mix availability

If I buy/install the "Sound Blaster Audigy Fx" will it add the stereo mix option to my sound properties, also
does this card work on windows 8?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/creative...&skuId=3287009

Re: Sound Blaster Xtreme Audio missing Stereo MixK I think I'm having a similar problem with my Windows 7 Professional system.
I'm am getting sound out of my card.
When I right click on the "speaker" icon in the task bar I see the following list of 5 options
Volume Mixer
Playback Devices
Recording Devices
Sounds
Volume Control Options
However when I click on "playback devices", "Recording Devices" and "sounds" nothing comes up.
What I did do is completely uninstall all traces of any installed Creative software and in the device manager did an uninstall for the SB Xtreme Audio Card.
My recording device is the integrated microphone in the Logitech Quickcam/IM that I have installed. If I go to accessories and click on "sound recorder" it doesn't start up either.
The other issue that I see is that when I go into Control Panel and click on Sounds, nothing happens.
Something is definitely going on but I can't seem to track down the cause.

Sound Blaster MP3+ causes Control Panel er

Hi,
I just installed the drivers from the installation CD and everything seems to be working properly. However, whenever I open Control Panel, I get this error message:
"To enable the advanced sound effect for gaming, please make sure the setting of Hardware Acceleration is "full". The directory is as below: Control Panel -> Multimedia(Win98) / Sound & Multimedia(Win200, Me)/Sound & Audio Device (WinXP) -> Audio -> Playback/Advance...-> Performance -> Hardware Acceleration"
It has only an "OK" button which, when I click it, brings up the error again. This happens 3 or 4 times in a row, and then finally the Control Panel appears.
I did not have this problem before installing Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. I thought maybe installing SP 2 was the cause of the problem. However, I just reformatted my hard-dri've and installed SP 2 BEFORE installing Sound Blaster MP3+. The problem appears again. Is there a known compatibility issue? What might be the cause of this error?
Also, I was just wondering: What exactly is Sound Blaster MP3+? Is it an actual sound card? Or is it just a sound processing device. I am running it on a laptop which has an integrated sound card. Should I have disabled the integrated sound card before installing MP3+? Could there be a conflict there?
Thanks.
- Mark

Sorry, I forgot to mention that yes, I checked the Hardware Acceleration settings and they are already set to "full".

Sound Blaster Z is missing EAX environment effects in the Control Panel

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