"Your audio capture settings are invalid. Please correct them with the "Sound Preferences" under the System-Preferences menu" comes up whenever I try and open soundrecorder, which is my preference because it records whatever's in the [stereo mix] line channel.

Other things that don't work are movie player and the pulseaudio applet, which says "connection refused" whenever I try and open volume control, meter, etc. Anyway, I've seen a lot of threads about these errors, but nothing that actually helps me. I just wanna get to work and record samples, and will give a big digital hug to anyone who can help me solve my problem.

if you need any more information in order to help, I'll gladly provide. thank you!

every time I try to go to system sound preferences it says, indefinately, "waiting for sound system to respond". I forgot that very important piece of information.