Sound Card Troubles

Hi Folks! About a month ago, I upgraded from my 9 year old XP machine to a new Windows 8 machine with assistance from some very helpful people here. I have been very satisfied with everything about the new machine, an Acer Predator AG3-605-UR38. However, two things about it I'm not very satisfied with. Number one is the DVD drive. Its not the traditional type that would be in a desktop PC, but one from a laptop. Hopefully the reliability of the drive will not be a problem. Though, I have had problems with the traditional motorized tray drives in desktop PC's too. So, anything is possible. Due to the design of the case, this really isn't able to be changed. 

The second thing that I'm not satisfied with is the onboard sound. Some kind of RealTek HD audio chip. My XP machine had a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS card. I loved it. I could control everything I wanted to and it was simple. The Creative Surround Mixer gave me control of everything I wanted. Even though I only use 2.1 speakers, I use the line in on my computer to play guitar through my computer (via a Vox ToneLab guitar amplifier modeler). I was able to do this with the onboard audio, but… the overall sound quality was terrible. Any sort of large volume changes in the music, the sound would clip and get very quiet, and wouldn't recover for at least 5 seconds. Not to mention, the volumes weren't very easy to control. All of the RealTek Audio controls are only accessed through the control panel. The short of it is, I wasn't liking it. So I figured I would get a sound card. 

I figured, I was happy with my SB Audigy 2 ZS card, why not check out Sound Blaster again? So I started researching SB cards. It seemed that the Sound Blaster Audigy RX would be a good fit. A lot of the same characteristics as the 2 ZS since they have pretty much the same chip. I got the card last Wednesday and got it installed on Thursday. After getting all the software installed, I came to find out that there was no mixer. There was no equalizer. There was barely any volume control. There was absolutely nothing useful. All there was to speak of is a bunch of crap like digital enhancements where I could make it sound like I was listening to my music in a bathroom, or a church, or a… haunted cavern… Absolutely nothing useful to control the way I want my audio to sound. There isn't even anything for me to control the line in volume. I'm so dissatisfied, its not even funny.

After MORE research, I found out that the CHEAPER Audigy card, the FX, comes with mixer and equalizer software. Figure that. The cheaper card lets you control more stuff… I tried to download and use the drivers for the Audigy FX card, but they are incompatible with the RX. I wrote Creative/Sound Blaster about my issues but their response gave me about as much help as their software did for their sound card. I'm at the point where I am thinking about returning the sound card. Even though the sound quality is at least 5x better, I can't control anything about it in a useful way. 

So, does anyone know of some kind of software that I could use with this thing to get a mixer and equalizer? Would I be better off returning the RX for the something else? The FX? A different manufacturer? I'm open to any and all suggestions here. And hopefully this isn't TL:DR. 

first question/suggestion is why not use your old Audigy 2 ZS card, it does have win 8 drivers. (i assume you have at least 1 pci slot on your new pc.)

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/CompatCenter/ProductDetailsViewer?Name=Creative%20Sound%20Blaster%20Audigy%202%20ZS%20Platinum%20Sound%20Card&vendor=Creative&ModelOrVersion=70SB035000003&Type=Hardware&tempOsid=Windows+8

nothing comes to mind for the new card and after some research i can't find anything either not even a plugin that would give you the equalizer your after.

i did find something that said the rx is more or less an audigy 2 zs because it uses the same chip or something along those lines so it might be worth using the correct driver but trying the win 8 version of the mixing software for your old card and see if that works with your new rx card.

sorry couldn't be of more help.

Ah, that's what I forgot to include. 

My first thought was to put the 2 ZS in the Acer, which would get me all I wanted and allow me to keep a firewire port. But, the Acer motherboard only has PCIe… One x16 where the video card resides, and two x1 ports. So… it leaves me a little limited. 

I will play around with those drivers later. I didn't see they had updated ones that would work with Windows 8 because Creatives site listed it as an "unsupported device" if I remember correctly. 

Don't be sorry, I appreciate your input!

you can get riser cards, flexi cable adaptors to convert the x1 slot to use a pci card here's some examples.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SEDNA-PCI-Express-to-PCI-Adapter-Card-Asmedia-1083-chipset-/231219180646

http://linitx.com/product/pcie-x1-to-pci-adapter-9cm-cable/13204

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/PCIe-x1-x4-x8-x16-to-Dual-PCI-slots-adapter-pci-express-to-2-pci-card/838905211.html

think i'd just return the new card and get the card with the software your after or try another make.

And you thought you weren't being much help… 

I had no idea those kinds of things existed. That may be just what I need! Just as long as I can get the card to fit in the bay without it just kinda rolling around in the case