unless you have a digital to analog converter your limited to 4 stereo outboard processers at one time or 8 mono processors at one time depending if thats not gonna be enough i suggest buying a 8 channel digital to analog converter to expand your mixing abilities. Patching the gear as inserts is pretty painless say you have a mono insert you want to use on vocals a hardware copressor for instance. You would select in your inserts analog 3 and patch the 3rd analog out to the in of the compressor and the out of the compressor to the in of analog 3. Now your compressor is on your vocal track. To bounce this down in your final mix be sure to deselect low latency monotoring or your hardware inserts won't print to disk when you bounce to disk hope this helps

A little new to to Ptools so forgive me.

So having a A/D/A converter may be my best option here then.

I want ease of use and will pay for it.

So something like the ADA8000 Ultragain Pro-8 will do?

So how would you go about connecting to the Digi002r and PT exactly? Just OPT out to the 002r and adjust the inputs in PT? Are there specific settings for this in PT?

Don't need many details just a rough idea to get me in the right direction.

Thank you very much. This does help alot and saves me some serious time.

Maybe the better question is: what do I need along with my 002r, to have the abilty to patch in and out certain effects on tracks.

I suppose there is a way, once a dry track is laid, to go back and run it through outboard gear through PT? This is possible correct?

i just told you how there are 5 inserts and 5 sends per channel in the pro tools mix window you click on the insert tab say insert a which is the very top box in the track and click it it will say no insert plug in or i/o find your vocal track and click the top box of the track select i/o pick i/o analog number 3 connect the 3rd alanolg out of the 002r to the third analog in to the compressor the out of the compressor connects to the in of the third analog in of the 002r this is very basic stuff you wont get anywhere in pro tools without reading so best advice i can give you is read the @$%$^&% manuals or download them here http://www.digidesign.com or read the help files that came with the 002r etc. knowledge is power. i found this in 2 mins at digidesigns website all your answers will come from them

How to connect an analog outboard effects unit and use within Pro Tools LE.

Physical Connections:
- We will use an outboard reverb effects unit as an example.
- Reverb OUT Left > Monitor Input 3 on Digi 002.
- Reverb OUT Right > Monitor Input 4 on Digi 002.
- Reverb IN Left
- Reverb IN Right

Settings In Pro Tools:
1) Setups Menu > I/O Setup > Select Insert Tab > Default Button > OK.
2) File Menu > Create New Track > Stereo Aux. Input > Create.
3) Mix Window, instantiate an insert on the stereo aux. input track > I/O = Analog 3 & 4. (Top of channel strip for aux. track, same place to instantiate a plug-in)
4) Mix Window, set the input of the stereo aux. input track to bus 1, or available bus.
5) Mix Window, in the Sends View Window for a vocal track, set the send to bus 1, and push up the fader to the desired send amount.
6) If you solo the stereo aux. input track and the vocal track, you will be able to hear the reverb on the vocal track more closely.

here is the manual http://akwww.digidesign.com/support/docs/PT_6.4_Reference_Guide.pdf

Gocha and i found that also. Thanks for the time.

I was just looking for faster ways or "Tricks" others use I guess that do not take up and additional outputs on my limited 8 I have now.

I guess thats why they make the TDM systems.. LOL

Thank you for being helpful and spirited. ;)