Hardware inserts

[ssd]

I had my Mac PT system setup by a guy in L.A. and then he disapeared and I moved to Canada and cannot find anyone around here that knows PT.

So needless to say I am trying my best to read everything and figure it all out myself.
I am trying to connect my Antares Vocal Producer to my PT system as a hardware insert.
My System:
Mac
PT Mix/Plus
Adat 24 bridge (optical)into 2 Apogee digital I/O cards installed in a Mackie D8B board.

I have read my PT Reference Guide (page 364)about Hardware I/O inserts but nothing I do seems to work.
I don't understand how I connect the Antares to the D8B board and then set it up in the Setup> I/O. Any help would be appreciated.

[DigiTechSupt]

Unless the Antares unit is equipped with either ADAT Optical, RCA S/PDIF or AES/EBU I/O, this is not possible with an ADAT Bridge.

Using an interface such as the 882/20 I/O or 888|24 I/O and connecting the analog input/output of the Antares to a mathcing input/output port on the interface (i.e. input 7 and ouptut 7) is the only way to establish a hardware insert.

Brent

[Paul Turpin]

You could set up the Antares as a send and return effect on the D8B and then route things to it from a PT Aux Send that goes the D8B and route the return back into ProTools. But thats a PITA - and it'll eat up a fair amount of the I/O you have. Seperate I/O for the insert is the only good way to do it. Digi is not just trying to sell you another box - it is the "right" way. But then again - you could end up like me with 24 channels of analog I/O + 48 channels of digital I/O and a big loan to prove it.

[ssd]

Thanks for the advice (both of you). I decided to do it the right way and purchased a "like new" (oh ya) 888/24 from ebay for $1,500. Top ramen for lunch for the next 2 months, hmmmm