How it works

One technical rider, used by everyone: the band fills it in once, the AV company builds the stage from it, and changes on either side are agreed before the show.

New here? The step-by-step guide walks through a band’s first rider and festival, and through a festival stage from the AV company’s side. This page is the reference, with questions and answers at the end.

For bands · Rider Builder

Open the Rider Builder at /rider/. Everything you type is kept in this browser straight away; nothing is lost when you close the page.

1. Your riders on this device. Switch between them, or delete one.
2. The editor: Band, Gear and Stage.
3. Switch between the printed document and the stage editor.
4. Your stage plans, e.g. a full plan and a small-venue plan, each with its own monitors.
5. ⓘ: the guide, this help page and the FAQ. The 🌐 next to it switches the screen language.
6. Projects: save the rider online, open older versions, and hand it in to events. On small screens this is the cloud icon.
7. ⋯ More: New (an empty rider), Duplicate, Import and Export a rider file.
8. Print, or save as PDF.
9. The rider exactly as it prints, updated while you type.

1. Add the musicians

Add each musician with + Add musician and pick what they play from the list. The app fills in the inputs, mics, DIs, amps, wedges, stage plan, patch and power; you change anything afterwards.

1. Pick an instrument to add it to that musician.
2. Where they stand: front line or back line (beside the drums); a drummer upstage centre, right or left.
3. In my monitor: the band’s inputs, tap once for a bit, twice for lots; All, or All guitars and the like when there are three or more, does a whole group at once. They become the “In the mix” column and the monitor sends of the X32 scene.
4. In-ear monitoring, and a spotlight: musicians with a spotlight get a numbered special on the lighting plan.

On the document, the summary cards (inputs, mics, DI boxes, wedges, monitor mixes, 48V) open a pop-up with a list of what they count. ◀ ▶ (or the arrow keys) step to the next card; ✕ closes it.

2. Gear

Say what you bring and what you prefer. Festivals match your preference against what they have.

The Gear tab is short by default: what you bring and how each instrument connects (mic, DI, own DI). For a guitar or bass, the preferred amp and the alternatives are always shown, because the venue matches its backline to them. Tick More detail: models, mics & DIs to name a kit, synth, mic or DI too; most bands leave those to the venue. Pedalboard and Effects rack are side by side; with a rack, say where it stands (on stage or side stage).

1. The amp you prefer, from a list of common models. The model sets the drawing on the stage plan; Other lets you type a model.
2. What else is fine (“Vox AC30, Orange”). The AV company sees how well their backline matches.
3. Mic on the amp, DI, or both. Mics and DIs are the venue’s choice unless you want a specific one, or bring your own DI.
4. Who brings the amp: the venue, or the band.

Drums: say whether you use the house kit, bring your own snare, cymbals and pedal on a house kit, or bring your own kit. The kit table lists every piece as on a channel list, kick first and crash last, with − / + for how many; + Add to the kit… adds a piece. With More detail it also shows the mic per piece (a ride mic gives every ride a channel). A synth is mono unless you tick stereo (two desk channels, one stereo DI).

3. Stage plan

The plan is drawn as the audience sees it: the left of the drawing is stage right. Drag anything to move it (hold Shift for fine moves); click an item to rotate, hide or reset it. ↶ / ↷ above the plan (Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y) undo and redo changes to the stage plan: moves, turns, hidden and added items. Wedges are drawn under the gear and stay at their depth: they slide sideways only, follow their musician, and never overlap: where they would, a wedge turns to aim at its musician, and if that is not enough it steps aside.

1. Wedges per musician, for every stage plan side by side (− / +).
2. Lighting wishes: colours, things to avoid, strobe, haze, front light, and notes for the lighting designer.
3. The selected item: rotate, hide, or put it back in its automatic place.
4. Drag gear around the stage. Moved items keep their place when the band changes.
5. Stage right is on the left of the drawing; the audience is at the bottom.

4. Print

1. Format. Condensed: one A4 page per stage plan, always the same layout. Full: several pages. Labels: a label per instrument (see labels).
2. English, Chinese, or both side by side.
3. Which sections (Full only) and which stage plans to print. Page numbers can be switched off here too.
4. The pages as they will print.
5. Download PDF (made by the PDF service, same pages); Print uses the browser’s print instead.

Save and recall projects

Open Projects. Riders on this device are listed first; sign in to keep them online, where the whole band can open them and every saved version is kept.

1. Riders on this device, saved automatically.
2. The rider that’s open now: save a new version online, or save it as a separate rider.
3. Versions: every saved version. Open an old one as a copy, or restore it (restoring saves it as a new version, so nothing is lost).
4. Events your band is invited to, and where your rider stands.

Signing in: see How do I create an account? A slot link, a share link or a rider request from an AV company also takes you straight to the right place after signing in.

Events and freezing

1. The AV company sends you a slot link. Open it, sign in, and create your band (or pick it if it’s already on the platform).
2. Save your rider online and hand it in. Until the AV company freezes it, they always see your latest saved version.
3. When the AV company freezes your rider, they build the stage from that version. You can still save changes: they see them as “waiting for acceptance” and accept or decline (with a note you’ll see).
4. If the AV company changes the stage after the freeze (house patch, backline, wedges), you’re asked to look at what changed and acknowledge it.

1. Where your rider stands: frozen at a version, or an update waiting for acceptance.
2. What the AV company changed on the stage since you agreed to it.
3. Acknowledge, so they know you’ve seen it.

Share your rider with any company

An event invite isn’t needed to send your rider. Save it online, then share a link: the company opens your live rider in the browser, without an account, and always sees your latest saved version.

1. The band, the version and when it was last saved.
2. Download PDF (and Print next to it).
3. Use it on your stage: brings the company to Crew.
4. The QR code on every page: the same link.

1. Projects → the open rider → Share link. The link is copied; send it by mail or chat. From then on your printed pages and PDFs carry its QR code (“Live rider”), so a forwarded PDF leads to the current version too.
2. For one company, type its name under Shared with and press New link. Each link can be stopped on its own, without affecting the others.
3. Shared with lists every link with its views, the companies that added it to their events, and how many companies signed up through it (★ next to a company that did).
4. Stop ends a link: the shared page stops working and that company’s copy no longer follows your changes. What they already added stays with them.

1. Shared with: every link of this rider.
2. A link made by answering a company’s request.
3. The companies that added the link; ★ = signed up through it.
4. Copy or Stop each link on its own.
5. Name a company and press New link for its own link.

A company asks for your rider. An AV company or venue can send you a request link. Open it, sign in (or create your band from the link if it isn’t on the platform yet), pick one of your online riders and press Send to …. The company gets its own link, listed under Shared with as a request; stop it like any other.

1. Who asks.
2. Which online rider to send.
3. Send.

For the AV company · Crew

The AV company works at /crew/: stages (house patch, desk patch, inventory), events and running orders. Bands only ever see their own slot. The screens are for working. Only the Print / PDF window shows A4 pages.

1. The event you’re working on.
2. The running order: bands and their set length (times are worked out from the timetable). Each band gets the stage plan of theirs that fits this stage and its wedges.
3. A band’s update after you froze their rider: see exactly what it changes on your stage, then accept or decline with a note.
4. The workspaces: Event (running order, soundcheck, timetable), Stage (house patch, desk patch, console, inventory, stage settings), Shows (each band on your stage) and Show day (changeover checklists).
5. Projects: save the stage and the event online, check the bands’ status, and open earlier ones.

The top bar

• Event: the event you work on. For an event of more than one day, the list next to it shows one day or All days.
• Event, Stage, Shows, Show day: the four workspaces. The list on the left shows the sections, the bands or the changeovers of the workspace.
• ↶ ↷: undo and redo (see Undo and redo).
• ⚠ 3 shortages: shows only when something is short. Click it to open the shortages pop-up (see Shows).
• Projects: sign in, save the stage and the event online, invite colleagues, and check the bands’ status.
• ⋯ More → New event: an empty running order.
• Print / PDF: the Print window. Tick the pages (Timetable, House patch, Equipment, Per band, Changeovers, Labels: lines & stageboxes; Soundcheck changeovers when the soundcheck order is not the show order), choose the days, the print language and page numbers. Then Download PDF or Print.

Undo and redo

↶ undoes the last change; ↷ does it again. Keys: Ctrl+Z to undo, Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y to redo (⌘ on a Mac). Each change in Event, Stage, Shows and Show day is one step: a table cell, a dropdown, a tick, a drag, a fix. Typing in one field is one step. Up to 100 steps are kept while the page is open; when you reload the page, the history starts again. The keys do not work while you type in a text field or while a pop-up is open. The full-screen stage plan has its own ↶ ↷ for the moves you make there.

Event: running order and soundcheck

The Event workspace has two sections, with the day’s timetable beside them:

• Running order: the event’s name and stage; the date, first band on stage, doors, curfew and usual set length of the day; then each band with its set length, changeover, ↑ ↓ and ✕. + Day adds a day. Add a band takes a rider from the Rider Builder on this device, a band you removed, or a band from another event; + ? adds a slot for a band you don’t know yet.
• Soundcheck: the order of the soundchecks per day. It starts as the running order; move bands with ↑ ↓, or take a band out with ✕. Type each band’s start and end time.

A band added from the Rider Builder on this device stays in step with it: changes made in /rider show up in Crew straight away. The link is the band name: a band with the same name in the Rider Builder is the same band. A band invited online hands in new versions instead (see below).

Inviting a band

1. Save the event online (Projects → Events → Save online). Each slot gets its own invite link.
2. Copy the link and send it, or type the band’s email and press Email it.
3. When the band has handed in their rider, press Freeze this version. From then on you work with that version.

1. The slot’s status. “Rider kept by the organiser”: the band hasn’t joined through its link yet, so you work with the copy you added.
2. Copy the invite link for this band.
3. Or type the band’s email…
4. …and email it straight to them.

Riders from bands: share links, requests and the band form

• A band’s share link. It opens the band’s live rider; Use it on your stage brings you to Crew. Sign in, set up your company there if you don’t have one yet, pick an event and press Add to this event. The band joins the running order with its full rider, and a newer version the band saves replaces the copy by itself (Crew checks when it opens and when you come back to it).
• Request a rider. Projects → Riders → Request a rider copies a link for any band, no event needed. The band answers it from the Rider Builder (and can create its band from the link). The rider then appears in your Riders list: choose an event and press Add. Adding the same rider twice doesn’t make a second slot.
• Riders list. Every rider bands sent you or you added from a share link, with its version and date. ★ marks a band that signed up through your request; “no longer shared” means the band stopped the link.
• The band form. For a band that won’t use the app: on a saved event, each open slot has Copy form link. The band fills in a short form (musicians, instruments, amps, drum kit, monitors, notes) without an account and never sees the app; the answer becomes the slot’s rider. They can change it with the same link until you press Lock (Unlock opens it again).

1. The band that shared its rider with you.
2. Your company’s name.
3. AV company or venue.
4. Create.

1. The shared rider and its version.
2. The event to add it to.
3. Add to this event.

1. Request a rider: copies a link for any band.
2. A rider a band sent you, with its version and date.
3. The event…
4. …and Add.

1. Copy form link: the band fills in the form without an account.
2. The invite link, for a band that uses the app.

1. The event and slot the form is for.
2. Each musician, with wedge or in-ears.
3. Per instrument, only what matters on stage.
4. + Instrument.
5. Send it to the organiser; the same link sends changes later.

Stage: house patch

The Stage workspace holds what stays the same from show to show. Its sections: House patch, Desk patch, Console, Inventory and Stage (name, AV company, console, mains, stage width and depth; New stage, Export stage file and Import).

1. Every line of your stageboxes, per box, with its colour and number. Click a cell to edit it in the table: box and label are text fields; role (and for a guitar-amp line, which house amp), house mic or DI and stand are dropdowns. Enter or a click somewhere else keeps the change; Escape undoes it.
2. A guitar-amp line belongs to one of your house amps: the guitarist who gets that amp lands on this line.
3. One column per band of the day: which of their inputs is on each line. The number in the dot is the band’s own channel number, next to the input name. Click a cell to choose the input yourself, keep the line empty (“kept empty”), or go back to automatic; the rest is worked out around your choice.
4. The desk channel the line arrives on (from the desk patch).
5. Inventory: your backline, mics, DIs and wedges.

Each input goes on a line of its own role first; a related line (a ride on OH R) only when nothing needs it; then a free line, on the desk first, in the stagebox where the rest of its instrument is. A line without a label is named after what the bands put on it. Giving a line a role that another line already has (snare top, Keys L …) swaps the two lines. Roles that can be on several lines (rack toms, floor toms, rides, guitar amps, DIs, vocals, percussion, other mics) don’t swap.

The buttons under the table:

• + Line adds a line; Remove last line removes the last one.
• Organise drum lines shows only when the drum lines are not in the usual order. It puts them at the top of the drum stagebox: kick in / out, snare top / bottom, hi-hat, rack toms, floor toms, ride, overheads, drum vocal, as many as the bands of the event need, with the free lines after them. Your choices per band on those lines are cleared.
• Free unused lines (n): lines with a role that no band of the event uses are dimmed (not in the drum stagebox). This button makes them free lines (no label, role, mic or stand), so they can take extra inputs.

Colours: each line has one colour, repeating every ten (1 brown, 2 red … 10 black); each stagebox has a background colour. See what the colours mean.

Stage: desk patch

Where each stagebox arrives on the console. The Stageboxes table has one row per box, with dropdowns:

• On the desk: the port. Local inputs, a network port of the console (AES50 on an X32, Dante on a Yamaha CL / QL, and so on), or not on the desk.
• First input: the first input of that port that the box uses.
• Channels: how many of the box’s lines go to the desk (the first ones). A 12-line box can send only its first 8; the next box follows on.
• First desk ch: the desk channel of the box’s first line.

The dropdowns only give what the console can do: nothing runs past the port or the desk. On an X32 / M32 the inputs are routed in blocks of eight, so first input and first desk channel are 1, 9, 17 …, and Channels is a multiple of eight or all lines. A box set to a new port starts on its first input.

Set it on the desk says what to set on the console: on an X32 / M32 the routing per block of eight (Setup → Routing → Home); on desks that patch per channel, the channels per port; a desk with fixed inputs needs nothing. Desk channels is the full list: desk channel, input, line and label. A warning shows when two boxes overlap, when a block doesn’t line up with the X32’s blocks of eight, or when lines don’t fit on the desk.

Stage: console

The console of your stage for one band at a time, in one row as on the desk and in a DAW mixer. Choose the band with ◀ ▶ or the list. Each channel is a column:

• On top, the matrix: Source (port and input), Line, Role, Input, Mic / DI and Stand. Click a cell to change it with a dropdown: the box’s port (Source), the line’s role or stand (for every band), which of the band’s inputs is on that line (Input), or a stand-in mic or DI for this band (Mic / DI, marked *). The Line row only shows the line.
• Then the channel strip in the look of the desk’s brand: 48V, select, mute (ON on a Yamaha) and fader.
• At the bottom, the name strip in the channel’s colour: channel number, name and the musician’s name.

Only the channels the band uses are shown. + shows the next unused desk channels, − hides them again. The mixes the band uses, the DCAs and the mains are in a row under the channels. A key above the channels marks the channels that come on or get a new name since the band before.

To change the band’s channel order on the desk, drag a name strip and drop it between two others. The channel numbers stay and the inputs move. The stage lines don’t change; the X32 scene follows the new order. ↺ Original order puts it back. The console has no routing screen: the routing is under Desk patch.

Stage: inventory

Tables: backline (kind, model, quantity, note, one row per item), microphones and DI boxes by model, and monitoring (wedges and monitor mixes). The model you pick sets the drawing on the plan. Bands asking for an amp or kit get the best match from this list.

Saving a new version of the stage after you froze a band’s rider asks that band to acknowledge the change.

Shows: each band on your stage

The Shows workspace has one screen per band (pick the band in the list on the left; the number is what is short). From top to bottom: what is short and how to fix it, their inputs on your house lines, the stage plan, monitor mixes, backline and the changeover from the band before. The printed Equipment pages (what the house gives out, with the peak per day, and the backline check) and Per band pages come from Print / PDF.

1. What each musician asked for and what they get from your inventory.
2. ≈ substitute: nothing matched what they asked for exactly.
3. band brings: their own gear.
4. The shortages of the day: click for what is missing, what it is for, and the fixes.

In the input list, Desk is the mixer channel and Line the house line (the cable).

Stand-ins. When a mic or DI is short, each input that uses it gets a dropdown: pick a spare item from your stock that does the same job (“2 spare”). The dropdowns are in the Mic / DI column of the band’s inputs and in the shortages pop-up. The band’s pages then say “instead of …”. Pick the original again to undo. The pop-up also has Add … to the inventory for gear you hire or bring in, and a button to the Inventory or the House patch.

The ⛶ button on the stage plan opens it full screen. Drag gear to move it on this stage; click an item to turn it. ↶ ↷ (Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Shift+Z) undo and redo these moves. Your changes stay with that band on this event and go into the house patch and the changeover lists. Back to the band’s plan removes them.

Changeovers

For every switch between two bands there is a checklist per crew, with positions in metres from stage right. On Show day, pick the changeover in the list on the left and tick the steps off as the crew works. The bar shows how far the crew is; Clear ticks starts again. The ticks stay with the event. When the soundcheck order is not the show order, the list also has Soundcheck changeovers.

1. Which changeover and how many minutes; the bar shows how far the crew is.
2. The X32/M32 scene for the incoming band, on your house channel numbers (only when the stage has an X32 / M32).
3. The backline crew: amps and kits off, on, moved or staying.
4. Stage patch: lines to unplug, plug, swap or move.
5. Monitors: wedges to move, add or remove, and what each mix feeds.
6. A step done: tick it off.
7. Every changeover of the day, with the steps done so far. Lighting and the desk follow below.

A prototype of a mobile field app for the crew is at /crew/app/. It shows the same event on this device, with the same changeover ticks. Five tabs:

• Now: the running order with what is on now and the next changeover.
• Stage: each band's plan. Wedges, Power and Musicians switch layers on and off; tap a musician to fade everyone else (icon, name, instruments, amps, pedalboards). Tap an item to open it. Double tap the plan for full screen: pinch to zoom, drag to scroll, double tap again to close.
• Console: one band at a time, as the desk (a column per channel in use: source, line, role, input, mic / DI and stand, then 48V, mute, fader and the name strip with the musician) or as the house patch with the numbered dots. Tap a column or a line to open it.
• Routing: every house line against every band, as numbered dots. A dot with a slowly flashing dashed red ring needs 48V. Tap a dot for the full path.
• Views: timetable, house patch, gear, per band, changeovers and labels as live screens. Gear shows mics, DIs, wedges, monitor mixes and stands against what the house has; tap one to see where it is used, and Side stage lists each band's drum set-up for the riser. Print on a view opens the Crew print window with that page; Export all prints the full bundle.

Questions and answers

From bands, AV companies, sound and lighting engineers. Type a word to filter.

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