The stage plot tells the crew where things go. The input list tells them what those things need. Together, they are the two documents that define whether load-in runs smoothly or turns into twenty minutes of "wait, which channel is that on?"
If you've ever watched a FOH engineer flip through your advance packet and nod approvingly, it's because you sent a clean input list. If you've ever seen them sigh and start writing their own from scratch during soundcheck, it's because you didn't. Here's how to be the first kind of act.
Your stage plot is a spatial document — it answers "where." The input list answers "what" and "how." It tells the FOH engineer exactly what's plugged into every channel on the snake, what mic or DI to use, whether it needs phantom power, and whether you're bringing it or they need to provide it.
A house engineer at a 500-cap club might mix three different bands in a night. They're patching your show during changeover with fifteen minutes on the clock. The input list is their roadmap. If it's clear, they can pre-patch half the console before your cases hit the stage. If it's vague, they're guessing — and guessing means mistakes.
This is the single most common failure point in advance packets, and it's the easiest to fix: use the exact same names on your input list and your stage plot.
If the stage plot says "GTR 1" for the stage-right guitar amp, the input list should say "GTR 1" — not "Electric Guitar," not "Jake's Amp," not "Guitar SR." The crew is cross-referencing these documents in real time. Every naming mismatch costs thirty seconds of confusion, and confusion compounds.
Pro tip: Settle on a naming convention before you build either document. Short abbreviations work best: VOX 1, GTR 2, KEYS L, KEYS R, KICK, SN TOP, SN BTM. These are what the FOH engineer is going to write on their console tape anyway.
There's no universal standard for channel order, but there is a widely accepted convention that most FOH engineers expect. Following it means the house engineer can patch your show with minimal re-thinking:
That said, the FOH engineer ultimately patches however works best for their console and workflow. Your job is to present a logical order so they can remap quickly if needed. Drums-first is the safe default because it matches how most consoles are laid out from decades of convention.
A complete input list needs these columns, in roughly this order:
StageBuilder Pro's I/O List view includes dedicated checkboxes for "Carried" and "Phantom Power" on each channel, so these flags are always visible and exportable rather than buried in a notes column.
On a dense input list — anything over 24 channels — the eye needs visual grouping. Color-coding rows by instrument group (drums, bass, guitars, keys, vocals) lets someone scan the list and jump to the section they need without reading every line.
This matters most at the monitor console, where the engineer might need to find "KEYS L" in a 48-channel list while the keyboard player is asking for more of themselves in their ears. A color band gets them there in one glance.
StageBuilder Pro color-codes channels by department automatically when you build your I/O list. The colors match the department colors on your stage plot, which reinforces the visual connection between the two documents.
Any stereo source needs to be clearly marked as a pair. The standard notation is to list them on consecutive channels and mark them:
Or, if space is tight, a single row with "KEYS 1 (stereo)" spanning two channels. Either way, the FOH engineer needs to know these are linked so they can pan them and apply processing as a stereo pair on the console.
Common stereo sources: keyboard outputs, tracks/playback, overhead mics (if you run them as a spaced pair rather than a coincident mono), and in-ear monitor sends. Don't assume stereo is obvious — if you don't mark it, someone will pan both channels center and wonder why the keys sound narrow.
An input list that stops at inputs is only half the document. The second section should cover outputs — specifically, monitor mixes:
If you have specific starting-point mix preferences ("drummer wants kick, snare, hat, bass, and click — nothing else"), include them. This saves five minutes at soundcheck that would otherwise be spent asking "what do you want to hear?" for every mix.
Monitor engineers love specificity. "I need my vocal, a little acoustic guitar, and the click track" is infinitely more useful than "just give me a good mix." Even a rough starting point helps — they can refine from there.
A good input list is a sign of professionalism. It tells every engineer on the gig that you've thought about their job, not just your own. It turns a chaotic changeover into a smooth one. And it means your soundcheck is spent dialing in tone and balance instead of figuring out what's plugged in where.
Build your input list at the same time as your stage plot, using the same labels. Review both together before you send them. Print them side by side and make sure a stranger could set up your show from those two pages alone. If they can, you've done the job right.
Build your stage plot and I/O list in one place.
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