Stage plot maker.

01 What a stage plot is for

Fifteen minutes of sound check, saved.

Every venue engineer runs the same drill when a band loads in: how many of you, where do you stand, what needs a mic, what needs a DI, how many wedges. A stage plot answers all of it before you arrive. The engineer patches the stage box during the changeover, the monitors are already roughly right, and your set starts on time instead of ten minutes late while someone hunts for a third DI.

It is also the document that makes you look like a band that has done this before. A promoter who gets a clean plot and input list with the advance email books you again. One who gets "we'll figure it out at sound check" remembers that too.

02 What goes on it

Seven things, nothing clever.

• Performers, labeled by role and name. "Sam, lead vocal / acoustic" beats a stick figure.
• Instruments and amps, roughly where they sit. Amps behind the player, keys where the player faces the crowd.
• Mics and DIs, one icon per input. Vocal mics on booms, instrument mics on short stands, DI boxes next to what they take.
• Monitors, numbered by mix. Wedges downstage of each singer, a drum wedge or in-ears at the kit.
• Power drops, where you need outlets. Amps, pedalboards, keys, laptops.
• Risers, if you want one. Drum risers are the usual ask and the usual thing a small room does not have.
• Orientation labels. Upstage, downstage, stage left, stage right. Without them the engineer has to guess which way you are facing.

Keep it to what the engineer needs to patch and place. Song list, merch table, and lighting wishes go in the rider, not on the plot.

03 The one convention people get backwards

Stage left is your left.

Stage directions are from the performer's point of view, facing the audience. Stage left is the side on the performer's left hand, which is the audience's right. Stage right is the performer's right. Upstage is the back wall, downstage is the lip of the stage nearest the crowd. That is why the labels on the plot above put "stage left" on the right-hand edge of the drawing: you are looking down at the stage with the audience at the bottom.

If you tell a venue "the bass amp is stage left" and mean the audience's left, the engineer will patch it on the wrong side and you will find out during the first song. When in doubt, write both: "stage left (house right)."

04 The input list

Every channel, in the order engineers expect.

The input list is a table with one row per thing that goes into the console. The tool above builds it for you as you place icons; you can edit any cell. Engineers patch in a conventional order, and following it makes the list instantly readable: drums first, then bass, guitars, keys, other instruments, and vocals last.

Write "or similar" after mic models unless you are bringing them. Naming a specific microphone is a preference, not a demand, and a small room may not own it. What matters is whether the engineer needs a dynamic, a condenser, or a DI, and whether the stand is short or tall.

05 Monitor mixes

Say what each wedge needs to carry.

Number the monitors on the plot and describe each mix in a line: who it is for, and what they need to hear more of. "Mix 2 (center wedge, lead vocal): mostly vocal, a little kick and acoustic" is enough. Engineers do not need percentages.

Fewer mixes than players is normal. A four-piece in a bar usually gets three or four wedges on two or three mixes. If you use in-ears, say so, and say whether you bring your own packs and mixer or need a feed from the desk.

06 What a small act should and should not ask for

Ask like a band that has played the room.

• Do list what you bring and what you need from the venue. "We bring all backline. Need 3 vocal mics on booms, 1 DI, 3 wedges."
• Do keep it to one page and print it in black and white. Engineers tape these to the console.
• Do put a phone number on it. The plot gets separated from the email.
• Don't demand specific gear, a drum riser, or six monitor mixes for a 60-capacity room. Write it as a preference and the engineer will do what the room allows.
• Don't send a photo of a napkin drawing. It reads as an afterthought, and it usually leaves out the DIs.

07 Sending it

Where the plot should live.

Name the file with your band and the year, something like night-owls-stage-plot-2026.pdf, and attach it to the advance email a week before the show. Then stop attaching it to everything. Put the PDF in the Downloads section of your EPK next to the press photos and the bio, and every booker, engineer, and festival production office can grab the current version from the same link you already send them. When the lineup changes, you update one file in one place. If you do not have a press kit yet, the music press kit template shows every section with example copy, and how to make an EPK gets you from a folder of files to one link in about twenty minutes.

A stage plot is one of the four documents a festival or a serious venue asks for on the same day: the plot, the input list, a short tech rider, and the press kit. Keeping them together is the whole point of an EPK.