Sound issues

As of recently, I have noticed my sound will randomly just stop. There's first a brief half-second of a static-like crackling and then a few "pop" noises. It will then stay muted for anywhere between a few seconds to several minutes. However, using my Creative software (either Creative Console Launcher's mode switcher or Creative Audio Control Panel) to change the "sound mode" will instantly fix the issue.

I first noticed this occassionally happening when I would use the Metro game app "Flow Free" and didn't have any music playing in the background, so I figured it was a bug with the app. Now I'm noticing it when just doing anything on my desktop. The sound completely glitches up, exiting Winamp (what I use for music) does not fix the issue, and opening Windows Audio Mixer shows that there is sound coming from winamp, even after I've exited it.

For clarification, I am using Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer with PCI interface and using its Windows 8 driver.

Do you happen to have the on-board (integrated) audio also enabled? If you do that can cause conflicts and problems. It may not be your problem, but if you left it enabled when you installed the SoundBlaster, disable it in the BIOS and see if it makes a difference.