Using the M-Audio Transit
under VISTA
(August 11, 2007)
M-Audio has a beta driver for the M-Audio Transit soundcard under VISTA, now available on their site at http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support&tab=driver .
The driver is only "beta" and has some installation and bugs, but seems to work. It is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE that you read the installation instructions on the M-Audio web site, for this beta driver! When you first try to use the Transit, the driver will at first fail to load. The instructions show how to get around that.
But, more confusing, the Transit at first will likely have NO playback sound. The instructions address how to deal with that, too, but unless you pay close attention, they may not seem to work. You are instructed to click the little red and white Transit icon in the system tray to get to a "control panel" (mixer) for the Transit.
But that icon doesn't seem to work. It doesn't bring up a mixer, but instead shows the system "Properties" window for the soundcard. And that window doesn't have the slider you need to get to, as described in the instructions.
The Windows mixer for the Transit (what you'll see if you click
on the little speaker icon 
) is NOT the same
mixer that the instructions are talking about. The instructions tell you
that another way to get to the needed mixer is to look under the VISTA system
Control Panel for a Transit USB icon and use that:
But if you look under Control Panel, you MUST be in "Classic View" to be able to see this icon (Vista default is the "Control Panel Home" view)! Click on "Classic View" at the left of the Control Panel pane to change, and then you can see the icon and get to the needed mixer. There, you have to adjust the Output Level sliders down and then back up for a one-time "wake up" of the installation due to a bug. While you are there, change the bandwidth settings to 24bit, 48kHz for both Output and Input.
I did run into a blue-screen one time when I was playing with installing the beta driver -- right after an install, connecting the Transit to a USB port crashed the system. If that happens, just unplug the Transit, and restart the system (without going into Safe Mode), and then uninstall the Transit driver using the "Programs and Features" part of Control Panel. Then, try reinstalling again, it should work.
Note: In PRAXIS, during calibration with the Transit
sound card, the Windows Playback mixer will fail to open because of problems
with mixer correspondence in VISTA. Before starting the "Do Cal"
calibration process, double-click the small speaker icon
in the lower right system tray and then on the word "Mixer" to bring
up the Windows playback mixer: have the levels set to maximum at the beginning
of the calibration process (that's important to do!) and reduce as needed to
reduce the playback level when directed by the calibration wizard. Note
that there is NO Windows record mixer for the Transit, so where instructed to
adjust input sliders, simply click "Step Completed" when that button
becomes enabled.