Asus Z790 Dark Hero (Sonic Studio III)

[ApolloOne]

Hello,

I recently bought a brand new PC with the Asus Z790 Dark hero mainboard.

I just want to know why the Sonic Studio III isn't working for my mainboard, when i click on it in Realtek Audio Console, it says that either my system is not supporting the app or the driver is not installed correctly [Nopkey] error message.

Now the question is, is it normal that Sonic Studio III (3) is not working anymore on the Z790 Dark Hero because it installs DTS (unbound) and everything or should i be able to use in on this motherboard after installing all drivers correctly. ( They are up-to-date btw, checked with windows update, Asus Drivers Hub and Armoury Crate and both armoury crate and asus drivers hub gave me a new most recent driver for realtek audio.)

Again, i'm asking because on the Asus Z790 Dark hero website it stills says in the Specifications: *The LINE OUT port on the rear panel does not support spatial audio. If you wish to use spatial audio, make sure to connect your audio output device to the audio jack on the front panel of your chassis or use a USB interface audio device.

Maybe that's the case it's not working/openning Sonic Studio 3 ?

And you can also read on the website, in the software features available for the Z790 Dark hero: Sonic Studio.

So Sonic Studio should be available for my mainboard, why i can't open it and gives me always [Nopkey] error ? Is it because of the line out/front panel choices i made, by inserting my jack into the line OUT back side of the motherboard or what and why i can't use SS 3 anymore.

It was a very usefull tool i always used on older ASUS mainboard and i kinda find it sad that it's replaced by DTS now (if this is the case), not being able to modify my EQ and everything on Sonic Studio 3 that made my headphones and sound in general sounds way better and clear !

Thank you in advance for your answer, i just want clarification here, i don't get it.

[Wesley1]

It works with Z790 just fine, even on Widows 11, but is difficult to install with the latest drivers.

Standalone driver package doesn't install it correctly. I think Asus is now requiring theirs Certificate Service to run and kinda unlock SS3 so that people do not use modded drivers on different hardware or something.

Either way, the only way I successfully installed it with recent driver was through Armour Crate. SS3 works both Win 10 and Win 11.

https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/intel-700-600-series/z790-realtek-alc4080-no-band-equalizer-on-windows...

[ApolloOne]

So the best way to make it work is to uninstall the audio driver completly, even in windows (Realtek USB audio), restarting system and installing it again with armoury crate drivers detection from the list, that's what you mean, right ?

Dude i'm afraid of using armoury crate, tried installing many drivers, 2 or 3 of them were stuck at 10% and an other at 99% for like 20 min, like something wasn't working well, it stills installed the drivers but i think not in a normal way because it was stuck that long...

I also noticed many ppl on posts saying how many issues they have with armoury crate, it's seriously annoying how bad asus apps works with new motherboards and w11...

I try delete the audio driver completly and reinstall it with armoury crate but i don't think it resolve my issue there.

I think yesterday i did it and still SS3 wasn't working, always [nopkey] error. i mean wtf.

[Wesley1]

It's slow it can take 30 minutes to install audio driver, do not interrupt the process. 

What I did was:

1) Disable in windows automatic drive installation.

2) Run Armour Crate standalone uninstaller.

3) Disables all hardware monitoring software on windows start up.

4) Create Windows restore point.

5) Run in safe mode DDU (Device Driver Uninstaller) to remove Realtek Audio driver.

6) Then in safe mode I manually removed all ASUS folders from %localappdata%, %programdata%, Program files, Program Files x86, 

7) Boot to Windows (normal mode) and created Windows restore point on OS without any Asus software or audio driver.

8. Installed armour Crate took around 20 - 30 minutes

9) Rebooted

10) Selected and installed Only Realtek Audio driver in Armoury Crate, took around 20 - 30 minutes.

11) Checked if it installed standalone Sonic Studio 3, and it works fine.

12) Uninstalled Armoury Crate with standalone uninstaller

[ApolloOne]

So i reinstalled everything and it is still not working, i tried everything i can since almost 3 days i was so done i just installed the audio driver with armoury crate, i just don't care anymore at this point if i don't have Sonic Studio, just so annoying that i get everytime the Nopkey error message.

I think i will buy later the most recent creative blaster X soundcard and i will get everything i need, EQ, voice clarity, sound boost etc. 

It's more simple than trying to fix an issue coming from asus itself not installing correctly the audio driver on windows 11. Too much issues and too much stress to get the sonic studio app, seriously... im done now X)

[ApolloOne]

Man you are not believing me if i tell you what just happened after i finished the previous post.

As soon as i posted the reply today, maybe 10 min later, i've got 3 new updates (for lightning and armoury crate updates) on armoury crate itself, i did the updates (first try the installation was a failure) and after a reboot i opened armoury crate, the drivers were succesfully updated and now i can use everything, even sonic studio 3. What a joke... Everything is working fine now with the new updates.

Don't tell me they realeased a new update correcting the SS3 not showing up and opening with the errors, like right NOW !

Anyways, what a luck, SS3 can be managed thru armoury crate now, at least for me it's working since the new update from today.

Finally...

[ApolloOne]

And btw it's not Sonic Studio 3, it is just called Sonic studio in armoury crate now. i can finally see it in the app click on it and modify EQ, voice clarity etc, you have everything you had in SS 3 btw it's almost the same apps.

[Wesley1]

Fortunately, I still have old version installed. ‌‌

I think Asus removed Sonic Studio 3 on new motherboards because some people complained it's unstable on Windows 11. Which is total nonsense, It works like a charm, there are just problems to install it from standalone package from Asus support page.

I  am running the same old SS3 version on Windows 11 24H2 like I was in Windows 10 22H2 and it is a must for me. After successful installation I see no difference in working than on Windows 10. It's running same virtual driver / filter 1.0.3 as on Windows 10 two years ago, and SS3 3.16.23.0.

I think some people had had borked OS or complained too much and Asus just removed it while the SS3 has been the best app from their suite.

The Armoury Crate is too much bloatware and really unstable for me to have it installed, so I'm happy I still have old version installed. ‌‌ I hope they will keep support of this Sonic Studio 3 app. 

This was actually one of key points of choosing a premium tier Asus motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z790-F Gaming WiFi rev 1.0.
Otherwise I would go for much cheaper TUF variant, or MSI or Gigabyte.

I didn't want to go for external soundcard or something from Creative due to their constant driver problems and lack of support on new operating systems.
Realtek seemed like a safe option, where audio codec ACL4080 is very good quality. I also had SS3 on may previous system, so...

But what Asus is now doing with their software support is just awful. Their Windows apps were never good (AISuite 3), but worked more or less.
Sonic Studio 3 is actually licenced and rebranded software from other company - Nahimic.
Asus does good hardware and BIOS UEFI, but their Windows app are bad.

[ApolloOne]

Hi,

Yeah for me now after Sonic Studio now showing up but repaired by the latest driver in armoury crate, i have issues with GameFirst Wifi app in Armoury Crate, before the driver update GameFirst was working fine but Sonic studio was not showing up at all. Not GameFirst is not working. If i click on "ON" i get always the error message "Error 5" ...

I noticed something strange about Sonic Studio. Sound sounds really better than without, i have to admit it. But something is not working well here. My sound goes always up and down if i listen to music for example. Bass is a bit too high and Treble too low, even if i play with treble boost and even if i let bass boost on off. It's not a totally balanced sound, how can i say... Sometimes it's annoying because my windows sounds is set on 50 and the sound is not balanced, the first time i used Sonic Studio it was just fine and my sound was always set on 20-30 MAX, now i have to up the sound to 50 at least but at 50 everything sounds too "boosted" less treble, too much bass and the voice goes randomly up and down if the bass kicks in. I changed everything it stays like that since i rebooted my pc, again the first time i used it the entire day when it was finally working after the driver, everything was fine, i don't get it man. I'm an audiophile and i immediatly can recognize if my sound changes or not. It's not the same anymore. Not saying it's bad but the first time i used sonic studio it was working way better, so weird...

I already tried to change everything (treble, bass boost, voice clarity, EQ, smart volume on/off surround on and off and when i listen to music, the voice of the singer kicks in, IF there is too much different sounds in the music the voice (and the sound in general actually) will automatically go way lower for a short time and goes again up and loud. I already checked in realtek audio console for the amplification level of my audio, it's already on extreme, i'm 100% sure that on extreme my sound was WAY louder by setting it on 25 or 30... So why is it too low on 30 now ?! If i set it on 50 it "okay" but you can clearly notice trebles and bass are too loud and not matching the true and good sound i had anymore. I don't get it why everything is so messed up in win11, if i knew that i rather stay on win10 seriously... But anyways end of this year win 10 will not be updated anymore, so it's really annoying !

You have to take win 11 even if it doesn't work properly, i mean... 

Never had so many issues with win 10. I was using razer synapse surround sound...the best app i ever had for my beyerdynamic dt 990 (because my razer kraken was nothing beside of it) Don't ask me why i ask myself the same question since i was using, 4 years ago. Razer surround pro with all of my headphones gave me The perfect sound with True voice clarity, such a good bass, nothing was too loud and too low bass/boost in perfect harmony, i don't know why but the razer app gave me the best sound and i do not understand it even today. A better sound than Sonic studio, FX sound or nahimic everything you want, it was like 3x better than every other app you can find, i know crazy, but because it was such a perfect a true studio sound with the razer app ( i even clicked sometimes on on and off to see the difference, unbelievable how better my sound was.)

So just to say on windows 10 the razer surround sound was always working but on win 11 i have just no sound with the razer app. That's why i wanted at least Sonic studio because without any app the headset sounds boring, even if it is a professionnal studio headphone i don't know why i always asked myself why the sound is so poor without an EQ app.

But yeah, so sad so many app are not working properly on win 11 and really annoying !

That's why i wanted to test a good sound card, maybe that's my chance to fix those issues. IDK.

[ApolloOne]

And i know it sounds crazy that a RAZER app sounds better than a 600$ motherboard sound app (ASUS)

But i even copy/paste my EQ from Razer surround sound and everything i set on bass boost, voice clarity ( little bit different names in razer app) and did the same on sonic studio, not the same sound at all. and just boring without an EQ. But my headphone is one of the best for listening to music, so why the hell it sounds so poor, even without an app, i srisly don't get it. If i test it on my denon amplifier everything sound perfect, if i test it on my old pc or new pc without an app it sound boring, hello ?! I have a Z790 dark hero, sounds boring and not balanced at all without an app, why. I should not have such a difference and bad sound without a sound app installed on my pc, right ?!

At this point i said to myself, ok either razer did a pretty good job on their sound app, even if the headset they made cannot beat something like beyerdynamic or sennheiser or i'm just completly crazy...

I asked many people to listen to music, they all said without hesitation "no no with the razer app it sound so beautiful, clear, in perfect harmony, you hear even little sounds i never heard on any other headphone" MAN W T F !!  I just want my razer app back and working on win 11 X)

It's an old razer synapse 2.0.2 that works every 5.1, 7.1 newer razer synapse apps (only THOSE can work on win 11) does not give me the sound with the version 2 of razer synapse it's so crazy i swear...

If you love music and a good sound and you have something truly pefect you just want to keep it.

I really really dont know why i have such a perfect and better sound with a F razer app not working on win 11 anymore because it's an old version that is not supported on win 11, just on win 10 !!!

It drives me crazy i swear !