Creating an input list

An input list is the document your FOH engineer reads before you walk on stage. It tells them, line by line, what's coming out of the stage and into the mixing console — channel 1 is the kick drum, channel 2 is the snare top, channel 3 is the bass DI, and so on.

It's not glamorous, but getting it right saves an hour of guessing at soundcheck.

What an input list is for

Think of it as a spreadsheet with one row per channel. Every row has the same columns:

• Channel — the number (1, 2, 3…) in the order your signals hit the stage box.
• Patch — where it lives in the snake or stage box.
• Instrument — kick, snare, DI bass, lead vocal.
• Source — the mic model or DI type (SM57, Beta 52, Radial J48).
• Own gear — a checkbox for anything you're bringing yourself.
• Stand — short boom, tall boom, no stand, clip.
• Position — front of kit, stage right, centre.
• 48V — phantom power, on or off.
• Comment — anything else the engineer should know.

The whole point is that the engineer can glance at this and know what to expect, what cables to run, and where to put the mics before you arrive.

Starting a new input list

1. 1

   Open your dashboard

   From the sidebar, click Input lists, then New input list.

2. 2

   Name it

   Use something you'll recognise later — the band name plus the tour or year works well ("Riverwood — 2026 spring tour"). You can rename it anytime.

3. 3

   Pick a channel count (optional)

   If you know you need roughly sixteen channels, type 16. Plot pre-fills the table with sixteen numbered rows. If you're not sure, leave it blank and add rows as you go.

4. 4

   Open the editor

   You land on an empty channel table, ready for your first row.

Building from scratch vs. pre-populating

If your setup barely changes tour to tour, build the list once and duplicate it for future shows. If you're putting something together for a new project, start blank and add rows as you walk through the stage in your head: drums first, then bass, then guitars, keys, vocals.

Don't worry about getting it perfect on the first pass. You can reorder, duplicate, and clean up rows at any time — that's what the next page is about.

What's next

Now that you've got a list, head to editing channels and syncing to riders to see how to fill it in quickly and push updates into any rider that uses it.