Drum Mixer 16

Drum Mixer 16 collects eight stereo drum lanes inside one CLAP effect. Its fixed 16-channel input and output ports are designed for REAPER's plug-in pin connector: each source occupies one input pair, then the mixer either creates a stereo master or returns all eight post-strip pairs as direct outputs.

Its eight stereo strips are designed to receive the drum instruments directly or through the tracker toolchain.

Drum Mixer 16 GUI showing eight stereo channel strips with pan and EQ dials, compact faders, VU meters, routing, AUX sends, and drum-bus controls — Eight fixed stereo strips feed either a two-channel master or eight post-strip direct pairs.

Workflow

Set the REAPER track to at least 16 track channels and insert s3g Drum Mixer 16 after the drum sources.
Route outputs 1/2 to the main stereo output or a headphone monitor so the summed mode has an audible path.
Use each upstream drum plug-in's pin connector to place its stereo output on a distinct pair: 1/2, 3/4, through 15/16. The mixer consumes those pairs as lanes 1–8.
Choose SUM for a stereo mix or DIRECT when downstream plug-ins, receives, or hardware outputs need the individual pairs.

Mode	Outputs	Master / AUX behavior
Sum	Stereo master on 1/2; channels 3–16 are cleared.	Parallel AUX return and Master Level are active.
Direct	Lanes 1–8 on 1/2 through 15/16.	Post-strip signals bypass the AUX return and Master Level.

Channel Strips

Control	Behavior
Level	Post-EQ lane gain from silence to +12 dB.
Pan	Stereo balance dial: hard left suppresses the right lane channel and hard right suppresses the left.
Low / Mid / High	Low and high shelving dials provide ±12 dB around approximately 170 Hz and 4.2 kHz. Mid is a ±12 dB bell.
Freq	Tunes the Mid bell from 120 Hz to 8 kHz on a logarithmic dial.
Mute / Solo	Operate on the complete stereo lane with a short 5 ms gain transition to prevent switching clicks. When any Solo is active, every non-solo lane fades down.
Aux	Post-EQ, post-pan, post-fader send to the shared stereo drum bus.
Meter	Shows the lane's post-strip stereo peak with standard green, amber, and red VU zones.

Parallel Drum Bus

AUX BUS enables an original parallel processor assembled for the s3g drum family. The ROOM direction follows the useful production idea demonstrated in Brian Funk's Drum Buss room-noise example: negative settings retain attacks while contracting body and tails; positive settings lift body and room energy. The implementation is not an emulation of Ableton's device.

Control	Behavior
Drive	Raises the send level entering the s3g console-style overload core.
Glue	Increases linked stereo density and transient cohesion.
Room	Bipolar body/tail shaping: negative contracts sustain; positive expands it.
Weight	Preserves and restores clean low-frequency weight around the nonlinear stage.
Tone	Bipolar spectral tilt for darker or brighter bus color.
Return	Level of the processed AUX signal added to the dry stereo sum.

Master and Headroom

OUT controls only the summed output. Its −6 dB default leaves headroom when several synthesized drums coincide. The mixer does not place a safety limiter after the master: use the lane faders, AUX return, and output level to control peaks deliberately.

Automation and State

All 81 parameters are automatable. INIT resets the complete mixer, while LOAD and SAVE exchange the routing mode, output and bus controls, and all eight strip states. Version 1 mixer states load with the new Mid Frequency controls at their 900 Hz default. The fixed port count does not change when a preset selects a different output mode, so REAPER pin assignments remain stable.

Limits

The plug-in requires one 16-channel input and one 16-channel output port. It does not accept MIDI, rename lanes, create additional host ports, or include the AUX return in DIRECT mode. Direct outputs are post-EQ, post-pan, post-fader, and post-mute/solo.