MORE plug-in/FX advice wanted.

I have another question about plug-ins. I was wondering... should I consider a S/PDIF type FX unit like the MOne? That way I'm not hogging up processor power? I'm sure it's a good idea, I just don't totally understand how it works. Do I somehow just route my vocals to the MOne then back to the same track? If so, will the effect from the MOne just print itself to HD when I bounce? I guess I need some understanding of how this works. Also, what if I have a plug-in that requires a ton of processing power. And the latency is so bad that I really can't get a feel for the effect. Will this latency show up when I bounce the track and effect, or is it only occuring during the playback? Meaning... if I think that my settings are going to END UP being correct, can't I just bounce the track/effect, check it out, and trash it if I was way off and try again? Just curious. Which brings me to my final question. Just how exactly do you print an effect to HD. Do you create a new track and bounce the affected track to it? That way I avoid hogging up my CPU power. I read about how to automate an effect. I would use this feature if I wanted to put flange or something on the bridge portion of my guitar track. But is there anyway to avoid having to automate this effect? Can't I just somehow select the portion of the song, bring up an effect, somehow print the effect to that part of the song, and not not have to worry about automating it? Btw.. I use a G4 466 Mac, if that even matters. Sorry for the "newbie" questions. And if I can get all this info from the manual, then I appologize. Thanks! Jason

plugins in protools can be used in 2 ways: -RTAS wich is realtime (sortof anyway: lateny) -AudioSuite wich is processing a whole track/file/selection, without hogging your cpu, but it is less flexible. When you want to use plugins that have too much latency, why dont you track without the plugin and apply it later. You dont print the effects to disk when tracking with a plugin in place anyway. The connections for an outboard-effect are pretty straightforward. If it is analog, you connect the ins and outs to the same in-/outputs. (out 7-8 to effect, in 7-8 from effect). When you connect it using spdif you have to set the kind of spdif you want to use (rca/optical) and when using optical you have to set it to spdif, not to adat, and then you can use it just like the analog connections. Then you just choose i/o from the plugin-section of the channel-strip, and point to the right i/o.

Yeah if you are not using the s/pdif ins/outs for anything at the moment then go for it. I used to work in a studio that had the TC M-ONE and D-TWO and both were full of very good quality reverds and delays. If you do this, you will have an amazing stereo effects send and return, i suggest using it as an buss send, aux retern. If yopu can afford it go for it!