Metal Five Piece Stage Plot Template for High Gain Shows

What this template covers

This metal five piece stage plot template is built for volume and precision. Two guitarists run high gain stacks on opposite sides of the stage, each mic'd for front of house, with a pedalboard on the floor by guitarist one for gain staging and drive stacking. The bass runs DI so the low end stays tight under all that gain, and the drummer runs in-ear monitors instead of a wedge, which is standard practice once a kit gets this loud on stage.

In-ears on the drummer solve the classic problem of a metal kit outrunning its own wedge, but make sure the cue mix still carries enough kick and snare from the room that the rest of the band can lock in visually. Two high gain cabs running this close together also means tighter noise gates on both guitar channels to control cross-bleed between them.

The input list derives a full twelve channel kit, two mic'd guitar cabs, a DI'd bass guitar, and two vocal channels for the frontman and one backing vocal. The pedalboard adds no channel of its own, since it routes through the amp that is already on the list.

How to use it

Open the template and adjust the guitar stack spacing to match your actual backline. Rename the vocal channels, swap in your real amp models, and if your drummer runs a wedge instead of in-ears, swap that icon too.

• Full twelve channel kit, fully miked
• Two guitar stacks, mic'd, on opposite sides of the stage
• Bass on a DI, cab shown for backline only
• Pedalboard shown as backline, no channel of its own
• Drummer on in-ears, everyone else on a wedge

Send the link to the house engineer ahead of the show. A loud stage plot with a clear input list is the fastest way through soundcheck.