Ubuntu – Bad sound on log-in to Skype

You can try deleting your ~/.Skype folder (remember to backup first). This usually fixes any problems of this kind.

According to sixones:

Rather than wiping the entire folder, you can close Skype and delete these files; ~/.Skype/shared.lck, ~/.Skype/username/*.lock, ~/.Skype/username/*-journal. Deleting them all clears out the lock and keeps your chat history and preferences.

You can do this by running the following command in a terminal:

rm ~/.Skype/your-username-here/shared.lck, ~/.Skype/your-username-here/.lock, ~/.Skype/your-username-here/*-journal

Where "your-username-here" is your Skype username.

You can also use the file manager to do this. Simply navigate to your ~/.Skype/your-username-here folder and delete the files manually.

We may need another sound profile to be able to connect both, the microphone, and the audio for telephony usage.

To change the audio profile used with PulesAudio open "Sound Preferences.../Hardware, and try with the "Duplex" profile.

Audio profiles can also be changed with pavucontrol in case it is installed.

A solution from a previous answer suggested to switch microphone to mono by disabling one channel.

_{Disclaimer: unfortunately we can not test this possible solution, as we don not have Skype installed in our 10.04 test system, and a proprietary sound access may be used by Skype in this release.}