in this case it was just some kind of bug in the pulseaudio scheduler... to be honest i would like to switch it over to jack2 with pulse as a module, jack's scheduling is pro audio grade... my usb sound device is fine, i was concerned it might be a USB issue, i think this gigabyte microatx motherboard i have is a bit flaky, cheap, after all...

anyway, yeah, i'm gonna really be wary about doing upgrades any time soon... at best only in the case where an upgrade is required to install something, and only the thing that it needs... version 6 kernels have been utter shit, overall, i was fine with my 5.15 for like 4 years and then suddenly everyones pushing 6 on you and every single version has been a lucky dip bargain bin situation