Problems & confusion with Sound Blaster Z

Blue42

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Nov 13, 2006
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18,510
Hey I just installed a Creative Sound Blaster Z on my system, specs below just in case they matter:

MB: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3
CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 925 @ 2.8 GHz
RAM: 12 GB DDR3
OS: Win7 64-bit Ultimate SP1
GPU: Geforce 260 GTX 896 MB

The problem with the card was that the sound was heavily distorted, with channels swapping all over the place (both with the stereo output and headphone output), crackling and just well, broken. I tried switching the card to a different PCI-e slot but it made no difference. The drivers are the latest, I have disabled onboard audio. I was already cursing Creative, but when I tried to change the "default audio format" in Windows settings to 44100, 16-bit Stereo, the problem *seems* to have gone away. I haven't tried it yet extensively but at least it seems to work for now. So my question is, what does this setting actually do? I have music in high quality FLAC files (99600, 24-bit) so does keeping this setting @ 44100 16-bit mean that it downsamples the sound quality to 44100/16 ? I think it's pretty annoying that the card says it supports up to 192khz but doesn't work at all & I'm afraid the broken audio will come back any minute now. I just feel like I've been ripped off :no: Bought this card since I'm a musician and the onboard audio just doesn't cut it for mastering.

Any ideas? Except "should've gone with ASUS" :lol:
 
Solution
first i've heard of channels swapping and similar. creative cards like the z are quite good. drivers should be fine for win7 as i've not heard of many issues like this.

it may be that you just received a defective model (can you test out on another pc by chance?) or perhaps something else in your system affecting it like emi, poor power supply causing electrical noise, etc.

is the OS a legitimate copy you bought or was it downloaded? not many people running fairly low to middle end pcs will have spent the money for ultimate.

Blue42

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Nov 13, 2006
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18,510


Good idea. Just sent an e-mail there, it said that it may take up to 2 business days to get a response... But I'm still wondering about the "default audio format" setting in Windows? What does it actually do? :??:
 

Rogue Leader

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In theory it runs any sounds in windows at that format no matter the encoding.

Did you delete all the factory drivers for your onboard sound in addition to disabling it? Also in Device manage under sound video and game controllers, did you disable "High Definition Audio Device" (thats your onboard sound).
 

Shaun o

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The first value is the maximum Khz range audio is played back at, or sampled at when recording.

The 16 numbered value refers to the bit rate the Dac is set to, the higher the value is the more crisp sound played back or recorded via the sound card, the Highest setting should be 192000 Hz @ 24 bits for the sound card.
The card contains a Dac chip and is controlled by these setting in the software driver for the card.

By setting a higher Khz range and how many bits, increases what we call the latency of sound playback or recording.
The time it takes the driver and the set bit mode to play, or record sound.
And the larger the file will be if recording, and exported as a windows Wave file or compressed in Mp3 audio format.



 
first i've heard of channels swapping and similar. creative cards like the z are quite good. drivers should be fine for win7 as i've not heard of many issues like this.

it may be that you just received a defective model (can you test out on another pc by chance?) or perhaps something else in your system affecting it like emi, poor power supply causing electrical noise, etc.

is the OS a legitimate copy you bought or was it downloaded? not many people running fairly low to middle end pcs will have spent the money for ultimate.
 
Solution