I know about how aRts has delay when using options like "Full duplex" and the like, but my problem is slightly different.

Sound runs fine, until I use the sound in some apps, like Noatun, then the dreaded aRts delay comes into play. I can get rid of it, using alsaconf, and then reconfiguring my volume controls. But as soon as I use the sound in one of the offending apps, the aRts delay comes in again.

What possible workarounds could be used to counteract this problem? I heard of having it use another sound system, but I'm unsure of the exact method to doing that.

Any advice appreciated, Gold Yo.

yea arts just has latency problems
you can disable kde sound system as in /stop/turn off/ arts and uncheck "enable sound system"
then use alsa output for sound applications
can also use oss output because of oss emulation in alsa (sometimes it works better)
the only way i have found to still have kde sounds if you like that is
with arts disabled go in Controll Center go to System Notifications and click player settings
check "use external player" and choose mplayer

you can get software mixing from alsa if you need it with a dmix plugin in your ~/.asoundrc
you will find lots of examples on the net