DAW Bridge

Stagewright DAW Bridge is an audio plugin that puts a Stagewright rig's processed output onto a track in your DAW, so you can record it.

It is an add-on to Stagewright, not a separate product. It is free, and it does nothing on its own: it needs a licensed Stagewright running as its source rig.

The plugin works two ways:

• Local — the DAW runs on the same Mac as Stagewright. Nothing to configure, and the lowest latency of the two modes.
• Network — the DAW runs on another Mac on the same local network. The plugin finds rigs by name, you pick yours and enter the rig's Remote password.

Requirements

Requirement	Detail
Operating system	macOS 11 (Big Sur) or later
Mac	Apple Silicon or Intel. One universal binary covers both, and it loads in Rosetta-hosted DAWs.
Formats	Audio Unit (.component) and VST3
Source rig	A licensed Stagewright. The plugin installs and loads without one, but receives no audio.
Audio	Stereo. Any session sample rate; the plugin resamples. Its native rate is 48 kHz.
Network mode	Both Macs on the same local network, and a Remote password set on the rig.

Hosts it has been used with include Logic Pro, Luna, Cubase, Ableton Live, Reaper and Pro Tools. Any host that loads an AU or a VST3 effect should work.

Install the plugin

The Bridge ships as a signed, notarized macOS installer package. Because it is notarized, macOS installs it with no Gatekeeper warnings.

1. Download the installer. That link always points at the current version.
2. Double-click the .pkg and follow the installer.
3. It places both formats in the system plug-in folders:
   • /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components (Audio Unit)
   • /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 (VST3)
4. Restart your DAW, or rescan its plug-in list, so it picks the new plugin up.

Two other ways to get it

• The installer is bundled inside Stagewright.dmg, so a machine that already has the app download has the plugin too.
• In Stagewright, Help ▸ Install DAW Bridge Plugin… runs the same installer without hunting for the file.

Installing on the DAW's Mac

In network mode the plugin runs on the machine with the DAW, which is not the machine running the rig. Install it there. That Mac does not need Stagewright, licensed or otherwise.

Same-Mac setup (Local)

Use this when Stagewright and the DAW are on one Mac.

In Stagewright

1. Open the Wiring view.
2. Add a Bridge Out card to the canvas.
3. Wire the audio you want to send into it. Whatever you patch into the card is what leaves the rig, so this is where you choose the capture point: your master, a single rack, a submix.

The card behaves like any other sink in the rig. It is saved with the project, so the setup comes back the next time you open it.

Each Bridge Out card carries a numbered stream, shown on the card as a Stream picker. One card needs no thought: it is stream 1, which is what the plugin listens to by default. Add more cards for stems, and give each its own number.

Local sending needs no password and no toggle. As long as the card exists and the install is licensed, the stream is available on this Mac.

In the DAW

4. Create an audio track.
5. Insert Stagewright Bridge on it as an effect. The manufacturer is Nubisco.
6. The plugin finds the local rig and connects. Its status line tells you what it found.
7. If the rig sends more than one stream, pick the one this track should record from the plugin's Stream picker. Streams a card has been named show that name next to the number.

Record and monitor

8. Record-arm the track and turn on input monitoring, so you hear what the plugin is putting out.
9. Play. The signal on the track is the rig's processed output.

Cross-machine setup (Network)

Use this when the rig is on one Mac and the DAW is on another, on the same local network.

On the rig's Mac

1. Open Settings ▸ Remote and set a Remote password.

   A password is required

   Network sending stays off until a Remote password is set. This is stricter than the remote Stage, which can run without one. Audio on a venue network is a higher bar.

2. In the Wiring view, add a Bridge Out card and wire your audio into it, exactly as in the local setup above.

3. On that card, turn network send on.

The card shows the stream's name, the address it is advertised on, and how many DAWs are currently connected.

On the DAW's Mac

4. Insert Stagewright Bridge on an audio track.
5. Set the source to Network.
6. Pick your rig from the discovered list. Rigs advertise themselves over Bonjour, so they appear by name. If yours is not listed, type its address instead.
7. Enter the rig's Remote password and connect.
8. Pick this track's Stream. A discovered rig advertises which streams it is sending and what they are called, so the picker lists the real ones. If you typed an address instead, it lists all eight and you pick the number the rig is using.
9. Record-arm and monitor as in the local setup.

Network mode runs a little further behind

Network mode carries more latency than local mode by design: it needs buffer headroom to absorb network jitter. For tracking against an existing session, check your timing before committing to takes.

Recording stems

To land drums, bass and vocals on three separate DAW tracks:

1. In the rig, add one Bridge Out card per stem and wire the audio you want into each. Give each card its own Stream number.
2. Name each card for what it carries. The name travels with the stream, so the plugin can offer "Stream 2 (Bass)" rather than a bare number.
3. In the DAW, create one track per stem and insert the plugin on each.
4. Set each plugin's Stream to the stem that track should record.

A rig can send up to eight streams. All of them are one connection as far as your licence is concerned: a DAW recording eight stems counts as one connected DAW, not eight.

Streams are numbers, not positions

The number on a card is what the plugin matches on, so renumbering a card changes which track receives it. Wiring is untouched by renumbering.

Recording tips

The Bridge is an effect on a track, not a hardware input, so what you record is what the plugin outputs. Two things matter in every host: the track is armed, and you can hear it.

Logic Pro

• Insert the Bridge on an audio track.
• Enable Input Monitoring (the "I" button in the track header) so you hear the plugin before and during recording.
• Record-enable the track and record as usual.
• Software Monitoring must be on: Settings ▸ Audio ▸ General ▸ Software Monitoring.

Luna

• Insert the Bridge on an audio track.
• Set the track to Input monitoring so its signal reaches the monitor path.
• Record-arm the track and record.

Any host

• Match your session rate to whatever you are used to. The plugin resamples, so no session rate is off limits, though 48 kHz is its native rate and needs no conversion.
• The track is stereo.
• Bypassing the Bridge Out card in Stagewright stops the send. If a take comes back silent, that is the first thing to check.

Troubleshooting

The plugin is not in my DAW's list

Rescan. Most hosts cache their plug-in list and only pick up new plugins on a rescan or a restart.

• Logic Pro: it validates Audio Units on launch. Quit and reopen Logic. If it still does not appear, open the Plug-In Manager (Logic Pro ▸ Settings ▸ Plug-in Manager), find Stagewright Bridge, and reset or rescan it.
• Other hosts: rescan from the plug-in manager, or add the standard folders above to the host's scan paths if it uses custom ones.
• Check the files actually landed in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components and /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3.

"Wrong password"

The password the plugin asks for is the rig's Remote password, from Settings ▸ Remote on the machine running Stagewright. It is one shared password per rig, not a per-user account. Re-check it there, and watch for a trailing space when pasting.

"Rig is at its DAW limit"

A rig serves several networked DAWs at once, up to a cap set by its licence tier:

Tier	Machines that can receive from one rig at a time
Stage	4
Studio	16

The count is per machine, not per track: a single DAW recording several stems from the same rig takes one slot however many streams it receives. Seeing this message means that many other Macs are already connected. Disconnect one you are not using, or use local mode where it applies (local mode does not count against the limit).

"Update this plugin" appears in amber

The rig ships a newer plugin than the one in your DAW. Everything keeps working, but an older plugin always receives stream 1, so it cannot pick a stem. Install the current one (Help ▸ Install DAW Bridge Plugin… on the rig's Mac, the installer inside the disk image, or the download link above), then restart your DAW or rescan its plug-in list.

The plugin stays quiet when it is current, and when a rig is too old to say which version it ships.

"Rig is not licensed"

The stream only exists on a licensed Stagewright. The plugin installs and loads on any Mac, but a rig running unlicensed produces nothing for it to receive. Activate the rig and reconnect.

No audio at all

Work down this list:

1. Is the Bridge Out card bypassed? Bypassing it stops the send.
2. Is anything wired into it? An unwired card sends silence.
3. Is the track monitoring? Arm it and turn on input monitoring.
4. Sample rate. The plugin resamples, so a mismatch is not fatal, but a session at a rate far from 48 kHz is worth ruling out.
5. Is the rig licensed? See above.

Network mode connects, then drops (or never connects)

• Both machines must be on the same subnet. The Bridge does not route across subnets or over the internet.
• The audio stream is UDP. A firewall or a "client isolation" / "AP isolation" setting on the access point will block it while ordinary browsing keeps working. Guest networks commonly have this on.
• Discovery uses Bonjour/mDNS, which some managed networks suppress. If the rig never appears in the list, type its address in directly.
• Wi-Fi works, wired is steadier. On a busy venue network, wired is worth the cable.

Limitations and notes

• Stereo, and up to eight streams. One Bridge Out card carries one stereo stream, and a rig can send up to eight of them at once.
• 48 kHz native. The plugin resamples to your session rate; 48 kHz is the rate it runs at internally.
• One Remote password per rig. It is a single shared password on your own network, the same one the remote Stage uses. It is not per-user accounts, and it is not encryption of the audio stream.
• Licensed rigs only. The licence check lives on the rig, which is where the licence already lives. The plugin itself is free and unrestricted, and inert without a licensed source.
• Local network only. Network mode is designed for a LAN, not the internet.
• Concurrent DAWs are capped by licence tier: 4 machines on Stage, 16 on Studio, counted per machine rather than per track. A single DAW taking every stem a rig sends still counts as one.

See also

• Wiring (signal graph) — how cards and cables work
• Install & first launch — the app itself
• Product page