Stage Plots
By David A. Barber
Author of Gigging, Everything You Need to Know About Playing Gigs (Except How to Play Your Axe)
Sooner or later every successful band will be asked to provide a stage plot. Basically a stage plot is a diagram of how your band sets up on stage. The stage plot is intended to help a sound engineer get an idea of what your needs will be. How many microphones will be needed, where on the stage all the instruments will be located, what kinds of instruments, and ideally, some clues as to what is needed in the various monitor mixes.
The stage plot can be as simple as a hand-drawn sketch and a few notes or super fancy with little pictures of the instruments, microphones, etc.
Here is a good free resource to help you make yours: www.freestageplots.com
Just for fun, here are stage plots from bands you may have heard of:
Sepultura:
http://www.invisibleoranges.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/sepultura-stageplot.jpg
This one is from Boy George:
http://totalproaudio.stevebunting.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Stage-Plot.png
And one from The Cramps:
http://scorgies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/crampsstgplot1.jpg
Guided By Voices:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/images/blogimages/2011/01/03/1294088225-gbvstageplot.png
For comparison here is a hand-drawn one from a band I think called Toss:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__u8uLjEPpRU/TDuFEKPOmmI/AAAAAAAAAHE/3cpyuSGUtPQ/s1600/toss+Stage+Plot.jpg
And a super fancy one from a band called Sun:
http://z7digiplayradio.com/Sun%20-%20stage%20diagram%20-concertv1.png
This cool one is made from a photo of the Richard Cheese band on stage:
http://www.richardcheese.com/rimg/richardcheese-stageplot.jpg
This is one Neddy & the Losers made: