Stereo Mic Recording on Creative Sound Blaster Z

This wasn't immediately clear to me and all search results seem to point at this being a bug that the Creative Sound Blaster Z cannot actually record its mic input in stereo, but after some messing around, it turns out that the solution is to just switch the jack configuration to "Line-In" in the Sound Blaster control panel.  It actually even clears up all the buzz/static/noise as well that normally comes with microphone input.  I'm guessing mic mode itself is mono, but literally the cabling and audio is the same whether you are on mic or line-in.  You might as well always leave it on line in and even get the benefits of no static or noise.  Hopefully this saves other people the hassle and starts clearing the confusion on whether this card can actually record in stereo (it can!).