Problem with audio playback! Sound gets constantly taken over / jammed

Hi there.. i've been having this prob since i got onto Debian. I have some nasty and persistent audio issue stuck in here.. the problem is, i can't run particular apps at a time along with any other playback. Such apps are for instance Skype, Wine and Audacity. They tend to jamm any other playback temporarily and not to play simultaneously. Skype has been the most nasty thing ever. I keep gettings probs with either ALSA or PulseAudio, though they work differently, but still of no big advantage, either one crap or another. For example, with ALSA i can do anything with Skype but if i'm only to use Skype and not anything else, otherwise it may shut something off. Sequence also matters. If i firstly run skype and only then play something else it's alright. What important is... things CAN play together, but usually something screws up at startup of those nasty apps. I mean, sound gets muted only if i launch it while other playback is on, but later i can get them to work alto! gether. PulseAudio fixes that thing with Skype, but it brings another prob: i can't host the calls. It stutters badly. If someone else is hosting it's alright. As for Wine and Audacity - it doesn't work for them. For at least one reason: they both use only ALSA (in Debian), at least Wine for sure. Anyways, i'd like to get ALSA to work rather than Pulse. The latter still has some extra playback issues, for example, it tends to "swallow" some audio signals from the said skype, such as incoming messages notifications... now for little details: 0 [SB ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB HDA ATI SB at 0xfe8f4000 irq 16 1 [HDMI ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfeae8000 irq 19 null Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture) front:CARD=SB,DEV=0 HDA ATI SB, VT1708S Analog Front speakers surround40:CARD=SB,DEV=0 HDA ATI SB, VT1708S Analog 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=SB,DEV=0 HDA ATI SB, VT1708S Analog 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=SB,DEV=0 HDA ATI SB, VT1708S Analog 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=SB,DEV=0 HDA ATI SB, VT1708S Analog 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround71:CARD=SB,DEV=0 HDA ATI SB, VT1708S Analog 7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers iec958:CARD=SB,DEV=0 HDA ATI SB, VT1708S Digital IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output hdmi:CARD=HDMI HDA ATI HDMI, ATI HDMI HDMI Audio Output I dunno guys, i like Debian, and it's been the only prob so far and i'd like to fix it badly. It seems like not everyone got this prob, cause i've asked several people already and they don't seem to recognize it, at least they don't exclaim at once "Ah! Yeah, i know that thing!". In mean case... i'll just have to move back to Windows... :( Using Debian 6.0.3 Squeeze / amd64

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