How to Send Your Mix to a Client Remotely

Stop bouncing and emailing WAV files. There's a faster way to get real-time feedback on your mixes without leaving your DAW.

The problem every mixing engineer faces

You've been working on a mix for two hours. The client wants to hear it. In a perfect world, they'd be sitting on the couch behind you, listening on your monitors. But they're in another city—or another country.

So you bounce the mix. You upload it to Dropbox or Google Drive. You send the link. You wait for them to download it. You wait for them to find their headphones. You wait for them to listen. Then you get a text: "Can you turn the vocal up a little?"

You make the change. You bounce again. You upload again. You wait again. A single round of revisions that would take 30 seconds in person takes 20–30 minutes remotely. And after three rounds, you have mix_v3_final_FINAL_revised2.wav sitting in your Dropbox.

This workflow is broken. It's slow, frustrating, and it kills the creative momentum that makes great mixes happen.

Real-time streaming changes everything

What if your client could hear your mix the moment you press play? What if they could hear every change you make—the moment you make it? No bouncing, no uploading, no downloading.

That's what real-time DAW audio streaming does. A plugin captures your DAW's audio output and streams it over the internet to a web browser. Your client opens a link and hears exactly what you hear, in stereo, with only a fraction of a second of delay.

• Immediate feedback loop. Your client says "more vocal" and hears the change two seconds later, not twenty minutes later.
• No file management. No bounces, no uploads, no version numbering. The mix lives in your DAW session, not in a folder of WAV files.
• No software for the client. They click a link in their browser. That's it. No app to download, no account to create.
• Works anywhere. Phone, tablet, laptop. In a cab, at a coffee shop, at the label office. If they have a browser and an internet connection, they can listen.

Method 1: Video call (Zoom, Meet, FaceTime)

The default choice for most people. You hop on a video call, share your screen, and your DAW audio gets streamed through the call.

Pros: Everyone already has Zoom or Meet. No setup required. You get video for reading the client's reactions.

Cons: The audio quality is terrible for music. Video call codecs are optimized for voice: they compress aggressively, cut high frequencies, and usually downmix to mono. Your client is hearing a version of your mix that misrepresents the stereo image, the high-end detail, and the dynamics. They might ask you to fix problems that don't actually exist in the real mix.

Method 2: Dedicated streaming plugin

A newer category of tools that solve this problem properly. These are audio plugins (AU/VST3) that capture the DAW output and stream it via WebRTC to a browser. The audio quality is dramatically better than a video call because the codec (usually Opus at 48 kHz) is designed for music, not speech.

Several products exist in this space, each with different pricing models and feature sets. The key advantage they all share: your client hears studio-quality stereo audio in their browser, with no software to install.

Method 3: dBaton CUE

dBaton CUE is our take on the streaming plugin concept. Here's what makes it different:

• One-time purchase, no subscription. You pay $199 once and own the plugin forever. Or use rent-to-own at $12.50/month—after 16 payments, the license is yours permanently. No recurring cost, no losing access if you cancel.
• Dead simple workflow. Insert the plugin → click Start → share the link → done. Your client opens it in any browser and hears audio immediately.
• True stereo with independent L/R metering. Both sides see VU meters for left and right channels independently. You know exactly what the listener is receiving.
• Encrypted peer-to-peer. Audio streams directly from your computer to the listener's browser using DTLS encryption. No audio data touches any server, ever. Your unreleased music stays private.
• Adaptive buffering. The plugin automatically adjusts the jitter buffer based on network conditions, or the listener can set it manually. This keeps audio smooth even on spotty connections.
• Works everywhere. The listener page works on Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge—on desktop, phone, or tablet.

Setting up a remote mix review session

Here's the workflow for a typical remote mix review using dBaton CUE alongside a video call for talkback:

Tips for the best experience

• Use headphones on both ends. This prevents feedback if you're also on a video call, and gives the client the most accurate representation of your mix.
• Tell the client to use Chrome. Chrome has the best WebRTC implementation and gives the most reliable connection. Safari and Firefox work too, but Chrome is the safest bet.
• On iOS, disable Silent Mode. iPhones in silent mode won't play browser audio. Make sure the client's phone is set to ring mode, or tell them to use the volume-up button.
• Use a higher buffer on unreliable networks. If the client is on mobile data or a weak Wi-Fi connection, switching to the "High" or "Very High" buffer setting smooths out dropouts at the cost of slightly more latency.
• Watch the VU meters. Both the plugin and the browser listener show real-time VU meters. If you see signal on your side but the listener reports silence, the issue is on their end (muted tab, silent mode, etc.).
• Keep the video call separate. Don't try to route talkback through the same tool. Use Zoom or FaceTime for conversation, and dBaton CUE for the audio. This separation means each tool does what it's best at.