I would recommend just to stay clear of the M-Audio USB
audio devices
for now (provided the patching is still necessary), there are many
alternatives of equal quality.
i would also mention that m-audio is now owned by digidesign's parent
company avid. its way, way too early to tell what will happen, but its
not necessarily the case that the existing cooperation that we've seen
with them (which has been OK, not excellent) will continue.
--p