How to enable SBX surround sound for SBZ without Sound Blaster Command?

[OpenSource Ghost]

Is it possible to enable SBX surround sound for SBZ (Sound Blaster Z SE) without Sound Blaster Command (SBC)? Can someone track which registry changes SBC controls/makes to enable and/or adjust SBX surround sound? I just want basic 5.1 SBX surround sound for my headphones...

I have SBZ specifically for its SBX surround sound feature, but SBX is controlled via SBC which starts but says it is not able to detect any Sound Blaster devices. I get audio from SBZ, but without SBC, it is limited to Windows OS audio settings. Common solutions, such as using newer driver version, newer SBC version, running SBC from a different directory or running it with elevated administrator privileges, do not solve the issue. I fully wipe OS, perform clean installation of Windows 10, Windows 11, and even try different motherboards, but SBC doesn't detect SBZ.

Does SBC require Internet connection to work? It has options for me to login, but I prefer to not have an account. SBC should be detecting SBZ regardless of Internet connection, shouldn't it?

 

[Craig56]

I had same issue where no devices were detected. Uninstalled via Revo, reinstalled twice. No dice. Within SBC settings there is an Application update specifically for "no devices detected". Updated and again no dice. Did a cold reboot and there it was! Good luck!

 

[OpenSource Ghost]

It figured it out. It indeed needed the Internet to download certain files and it also required Certificate Path Validation Retrieval and Revocation to be ebabled, something I always turned off to stop my PC from connecting to ctldl.windowsupdate.com (a telemetry-ish, spyware-ish domain used to update OCSP certificates and Microsoft products over TCP port 80). I also installed an older version of the program and then updated it through the program itself.