I’ve never trusted the external gear plugin. I just open 2 instances of wavelab…One for playback, and one for capture with the ASIO input plugin. (There’s a thread here about how to open 2 instances of WL7. Not sure why they restricted it on the new version) You’ll need a proper mastering console to monitor but it works great. You can still add plugins after the ASIO input section. I’ve been working this way for years. Maybe that help until they fix the external gear plug.
Pete Lyman