Alsa-Utils sound in Ubuntu 8+ is buggy as hell and always seems to die on me When the sound goes all crackly and

m@m:~$ /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart

doesn't work; try

m@m:~$ /etc/init.d/alsa-utils reset

other params are:
{start [CARD]|stop [CARD]|restart [CARD]|reset [CARD]}