Sincere apologies, but I have an audio problem!

[marc]

How do you select/change an audio card for an application, or for the
whole system for that matter?

On a laptop, I've been using the internal soundcard. I've now plugged in
a supported USB soundcard and cannot for the life of me get any sound out
of it.

The device appears on all the mixers, preferences, terminal commands and
fifty thousand[1] other places that audio configuration appears in
Ubuntu, but no amount of random tinkering can squeeze a pip out of it.

I know the device works, because I can unplug it and plug it into a
Windows box and sound appears immediately.[2]

So, of the various mixers: ALSA, PulseAusio, OSS et all, what is the
secret incantation to simple play some sound out of a device?

Any ideas, however whacky, appreciated.

I tried:

  $ asoundconf set-default-card blah

to no avail. I even rebooted!

<rant>It still baffles me how utterly appalling audio management is on
Ubuntu, and how delusional it is that somehow it's okay.</rant>

-- 
Best,
Marc

"Change requires small steps."

[1] A rough, conservative guess.
[2] And the fact that Ubuntu reports its whereabouts, even its MIDI
channel via $ amidi -l is a decent enough clue.