Skype 4.2 and Mint 16 64-bit Woes

[GenaTrius]

So I've got myself a fresh, 64-bit install of Linux Mint 16 with MATE here. I install Skype on it, but I find that Skype inexplicably uses ALSA instead of Pulseaudio, and blocks out the sound of everything using PulseAudio. I search a little bit, and I find that because skype is 32-bit, it needs 32-bit pulseaudio.
But instead of following the instructions there, I install ia32-libs, which I usually do anyway because I run other 32-bit applications sometimes.
Now, Skype appears to use PulseAudio, but it usually gives me no sound. When it does give me sound, it's not the sound of my friends voices making pleasant conversation, but a horrible random buzzing like eldritch bees screaming the dark sins of a malevolent universe. Hyperbole aside, it's a problem.
I've tried the whole "changing the launchr command to env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 skype" thing, and to 30, and adding the %U bit to the end (whatever that does) to no avail. Please help; Skype on my Mint 15 64-bit install is also kind of broken (it works for a little while, then randomly causes pulse to sort of seize up, causing everything trying to play audio to go non-responsive; I might make a separate thread for that) and there are things I want to do on Linux whilst talking on Skype.

[Tejas_0]

Normally run skype with one less degree of complexity, so have you tried just:

Run (Alt+F2): env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 skype ?

[GenaTrius]

Normally run skype with one less degree of complexity, so have you tried just:

Run (Alt+F2): env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 skype ?

As I stated in my initial post, I did try env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=30 skype, as well as env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 skype.