[LAU] stuttering sound using vmware in ubuntu karmic

Somebody made me attend on this list, specializing in sound problems. I write music semi-professionally and therefore have to use Finale, which is Windows only. I have installed Vmware where Windows XP is running as a guest and there I run Finale. The sound produced by any sound application in Windows is "stuttering" and distorted and quite unusable. System: AMD Phenom II (4-core, 2.4 GHz)) 4GB mem; Ubuntu Karmic. Sound is OK in Karmic (flash video's no problem, CD's no problem). Vmware : soundcard : autodetect. I have tried other possibilities but none worked better. I suspect pulse-audio, which I think is not a good development as I prefer good old ALSA without "embellishments". However, audacity, which I use regularly in Linux works without a problem. Can anybody give me some help to solve this problem as it is rather urgent and I don't want a system with Windows only. I hope somebody can help me out. Joep