The Send plugin is the easiest way to stream audio from your DAW. Sometimes you need something else: your DAW doesn't load the plugin well, you want to send a hardware mixer, or your DAW has a known problem with the plugin. These are the alternatives.

Use your audio interface directly

You can choose your audio interface as your HQ Audio Source with no DAW involved. Sessionwire sends its first two inputs: input 1 as left and input 2 as right, exactly as they come in. Use this for an instrument or mic through your interface, or for the output of a hardware mixer patched into inputs 1 and 2.

Send your DAW's output to the Sessionwire driver

The Send plugin is a bridge to a Sessionwire audio driver, and you can also send audio to that driver directly. On a Mac it's called ToSW; on Windows, To SW. In Sessionwire, keep HQ Audio Source set to the Sessionwire Send Plugin, which listens to that driver.

On a Mac there are two ways to do this, depending on your setup.

Multi-Output device

Use this when you want your DAW's whole output to go to your speakers and to Sessionwire at the same time.

1. Open Audio MIDI Setup (Applications > Utilities).
2. Click + at the bottom left and choose Create Multi-Output Device.
3. Tick your audio interface and ToSW. Set Primary Device to your interface, and turn on Drift Correction for ToSW.
4. In your DAW, choose the Multi-Output device as the output device.

Aggregate device

Use this when you want to choose, track by track, what goes to Sessionwire, for example a separate cue mix on its own outputs.

1. Open Audio MIDI Setup, click + and choose Create Aggregate Device.
2. Tick your audio interface first, then ToSW. Set Clock Source to your interface, and turn on Drift Correction for ToSW.
3. In your DAW, choose the Aggregate device as both input and output device.
4. Route the mix you want people to hear to the ToSW outputs. They come after your interface's outputs in the list.

Both are also the workaround if the Send plugin stutters when you loop a section in Ableton Live.

Whichever you use, set everything to 48 kHz: the Sessionwire drivers (48,000 Hz, 32-bit float in Audio MIDI Setup), your audio interface and your DAW project. Unlike the Send plugin, these devices don't convert sample rates for you.

Talkback through a hardware mixer

If your talkback mic goes through a mixer with USB, build a mix with only your mic in it and send that to USB channels 1 and 2. Sessionwire listens to the first two channels, so only your voice goes out, with no echo.

Loopback

Rogue Amoeba's Loopback app can create virtual devices to route audio between apps on a Mac. It's also the workaround for the Universal Audio Talkback echo. See Why do I hear an echo in Talkback?