Hi John,
It looks like you and I both got the V collection at the same time and are having the same issues. This one has a solution, though, I'm happy to report. In what must certainly be one of the most unintuitive features I've ever seen, the audio and midi prefs are hidden under the File menu at the upper left of the interface window. If that's in the manual, I missed it, just like you did, but when you hold your mouse on File for a second, a little drop down menu will appear with an Audio/MIDI Prefs and a Quit menu selection. Unfortunately, I'm having trouble with the A/M prefs. Some of the ports that I've checked, don't work but then I've got one that's unchecked that seems to be fine. I can't figure it out. I've trashed preferences a few times, but the behavior is erratic for the J8V standalone. Anyway, I have to agree with you: when everything is working, these things sound great and they're a lot of fun. Good luck...