What’s A Tech Rider?
For all you musicians out there who are just starting to play gigs, I need to give you a low down on the technical rider (AKA the tech rider) which is more crucial, but arguably less exciting than your other rider in which you outline your need for beer and more beer. 🍻
What’s a tech rider?
The tech rider is where you list in detail your exact technical needs for performing your show. You have to communicate with the venue or festival:
Your band’s stage and equipment setup. This helps the venue work out if their sound equipment can cater for your needs. e.g. A small venue may only have a small mixing desk that doesn’t have enough inputs to cater for a big band.
What equipment the venue will provide in the backline and what you’ll need to bring. e.g. Will the venue provide a drum kit?
What’s a backline?
A backline is the equipment that bands don’t usually travel with so the venue provides this gear. It can include amps, mic stands, DJ cables, DIs, risers and sometimes the drum kit. The venue also has to provide the sound system of course, which includes the PA, mixing desk and foldback.
Send the venue a stage plot before your gig
The best way to communicate your tech rider, is to email the venue or show promoter a stage plot. The stage plot is a diagram of your stage setup and also lists all the inputs and equipment you’ll need. The sound people and crew at the venue will use this to prepare the sound equipment and stage setup for you ahead of time.
There are a bunch of free tools online to help you make professional-looking stage plots like the one below.
What happens when there’s no tech rider?
I’ve rocked up to plenty of shows where the sound people never received our tech rider and stage plot, or they received an old version, or they just never read it! This usually means when you rock up to play the show, you realise that the venue doesn’t have all the cables and equipment you need to run your show.
As a result, your crew have a few hours (if they’re lucky) to problem-solve and rush around before and during the show to try and make sure they have all the equipment they need to make the show sound and look like it should.
This makes the whole show so much more stressful than it needs to be which can translate into a crappy show.
So…
Make sure you send the venue or event promoter a tech rider with a stage plot before your next gig! And pray to the music angels that the venue staff receive it and read it before your gig. 👼
