amixer and alsamixer wont run as regular user

Recently got this problem after upgrading my debian distro. Searched around for a solution and got the help I needed from debian forums.

The problem looks like this:
user@computer:~$ amixer
ALSA lib control_ext.c:664:(snd_ctl_ext_create) ctl_ext: Plugin version mismatch

amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device or address
user@computer:~$ alsamixer
ALSA lib control_ext.c:664:(snd_ctl_ext_create) ctl_ext: Plugin version mismatch

cannot open mixer: No such device or address
user@computer:~$ 

user@computer:~$ ls -l /dev/snd/
total 0
drwxrwxrwx  2 root audio      60 Jun  1 17:52 by-path
crw-rw-rwT+ 1 root audio 116,  8 Jun  1 17:52 controlC0
crw-rw-rwT+ 1 root audio 116,  7 Jun  1 17:52 hwC0D0
crw-rw-rwT+ 1 root audio 116,  6 Jun  1 17:52 hwC0D1
crw-rw-rwT+ 1 root audio 116,  5 Jun  1 18:59 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw-rwT+ 1 root audio 116,  4 Jun  1 22:46 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw-rwT+ 1 root audio 116,  3 Jun  1 17:52 pcmC0D6c
crw-rw-rwT+ 1 root audio 116,  2 Jun  1 17:52 pcmC0D6p
crw-rw-rwT+ 1 root audio 116,  1 Jun  1 17:52 seq
crw-rw-rwT+ 1 root audio 116, 33 Jun  1 17:52 timer
user@computer:~$ 
user@computer:~$ which amixer
/usr/bin/amixer
user@computer:~$ ls -l /usr/bin/ | grep amixer
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root   root       59588 Jan 10 02:46 alsamixer
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root   root       51280 Jan 10 02:46 amixer
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root   root       56076 Nov 23  2011 gnome-alsamixer
user@computer:~$ 
user@computer:~$ groups 
user disk dialout cdrom floppy audio video plugdev netdev fuse

The solution? It was simply deleting the .pulse directory in my home directory.

Thanks goes out to debian forums and the user dmuc for this one.