sorry, I didn't know someone responded to this... this is my secondary computer, it's not a big deal if it works or not, since it works on the other computer. But now i thought of revisiting the problem...

So, almost a year later, iReal pro 6.3, (same operating system, since this is the most this computer accepts), still doesn't work. It shows in Audio Midi Setup, it works on other applications in the OS, but when the interface is selected in AudioMidiSetup, iReal can't use it. Further more, the audio output selection popup doesn't open at all. When the built-in interface is selected system wide, then the audio output selection opens in iReal, but the m-audio is not listed.

I made it work, however, by using soundflower, selecting that in ireal pro then routing it out to the m-audio interface

thanks
(and now I'll go ahead and make sure I get emails from this thread...)