skype microphone input

[Brian Wootton]

I'm running kubuntu 10.04 on an amd64, all of my audio apps
run perfectly(video, audio, vlc, amarok, dragon player, flash,
audacity record/playback. My only problem is with skype -I can
hear people AOK, but to them my voice sounds as though I'm
talking down a 10 metre drain pipe. I can confirm this from
the skype echo testing service. I've been onto skype, but so
far they've only told me to do what I've already done(re-install)
other advice they've given me is totally out of date. I don't want
to do anything too drastic because everything else on Lucid
works fine and I don't want to mess up what I've got.
Has anybody come across anything similar or can anybody
give me any pointers.
  I might add that I can record my own voice and play it back
perfectly OK with Audacity, and I've tried a different mike.
brian