Have you taken a look at the ALSA project:
http://www.alsa-project.org/
Your sound problem might not necessarily be kernel related. You provide very little information - did you compile these kernels yourself, or did you package-manage them in?
ADDITIONALLY:
Usually people have enormous problems with package-managing kernel updates, since this usually breaks modules and device drivers on their system.
What could also have happened (if you package-managed your kernel change / upgrade) is that your Audigy has a specific kernel module that drives it. If you go and change the kernel, you ALSO have to make sure the kernel module for the Audigy is recompiled to run against the new kernel. If the kernel module is native to the new kernel source tree (my old SB16's module is) just recompiling the kernel wil recompile it too and thus your sound will remain working across kernel versions.
HOWEVER
If your audigy requires a third party module that you must compile yourself, and you DO not recompile the module against your new kernel, your sound will stop working in the new kernel. This is because you will not be able to insert the "old" kernel's audigy module into the new kernel - you MUST recompile the module "against" the new kernel to be able to insert it and use it under the new kernel.
Very commonly, when using a package manager, some of these tasks are not done so some stuff always breaks after using a package manager to upgrade or change the kernel. Which is also why it is better to do these kinds of sensitive tasks manually, rather than trusting the notorious world of package managers (much too Windows like - little black boxes that you plug in and then pray they work)
