Sound control (kmix/alsamixer) pulse/ICH6 weirdness.

All, With the latest R14 builds, I am experiencing crazyness with the sound. Critical stops/errors are very very loud, while normal sound events are low. Changing the volume with kmix has NO effect on the volume of the Control Center -> Sound -> Sound System -> Test Sound volume. Sound System uses ALSA. If alsamixer is run from the cli, then volume can be controlled. However using kmix to adjust sound levels and switching back and forth between pulse/ICH6 on the mixer causes sound to be reset to high level for errors. The sound processes are: 18:48 supersff:~> ps ax | grep "pulse\|arts" 3390 ? Sl 1:26 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start 3400 ? S 0:00 /usr/lib/pulse/gconf-helper 14133 ? S 0:06 /opt/trinity/bin/artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -a alsa -d -s 60 -m artsmessage -c drkonqi -l 3 -f There is also a 1-2 second delay between the sound event being triggered and the sound actually happening. What could cause such symptoms? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.