Audio very bad after kernel upgrade

[Kent West <westk@acu.edu>]

I went from 2.6.18-6-k7 today to 2.6.26-1-686, and now the audio that 
was formerly working is very poor. When I have any audio playing, 
there's a high-pitched whine, that seems to track my mouse movements. 
Once the audio stops playing (and in some cases the parent app/window 
closed), the audio shuts off with an audible "blip", and the whine goes 
away.

This is true in both KDE and ICEWM. I'm unsure how to go about 
diagnosing/fixing this problem other than dropping back to my previous 
kernel.

--
Kent