Technical rider template
A technical rider tells a venue exactly what your show needs to sound and look right. Here is what to put in it, and how to keep it current without rewriting a document every tour.
What a technical rider is for
The technical rider is the agreement between your band and the people building the show. It answers one question for the venue: what do we have to provide, and what are you bringing? Everything else in it exists to make that answer unambiguous.
It is read by people under time pressure. Short, specific and structured beats long and polite every time.
The sections a technical rider usually has
Contacts
Tour manager, front-of-house engineer, monitor engineer, production contact — name, role and how to reach them on the day.
Stage plot
The scaled drawing of positions, backline and monitors.
Input list
Numbered channels with source, microphone or DI, stand and notes.
Monitoring
How many mixes, wedges or in-ears, and who hears what in each mix.
Backline and equipment
What you carry, what the venue supplies and any acceptable alternatives.
PA, power and stage requirements
System expectations, power drops, stage size and riser needs.
Schedule
Load-in, soundcheck, doors and set length, so the day has a shape.
Why a template helps — and where templates fall short
A template saves you from forgetting the section that causes the phone call at 4pm. What it does not solve is drift: the moment you change a keyboard, the word document, the PDF, the input list and the plot all disagree with each other.
That is the difference between a template and a structured document. In ArtistRider the rider is data, not a layout. Change an instrument once and the stage plot, the channel list and the equipment list follow.
How ArtistRider turns this into a workflow
- Sections for contacts, stage plot, channels, monitors, equipment, hospitality and free-form requirements
- A reusable library of people, instruments and equipment across your riders
- PDF export with a consistent layout, plus a share link that always shows the current version
- Versions per project, so a festival rider and a club rider can differ without starting over