Rockstar & Take-Two: Interview with a Former Rockstar Leeds Sound Designer

Rob Carr, a veteran sound designer from Rockstar Leeds who contributed to several of the studio’s most iconic titles, recently sat down for an extensive interview on the Kiwi Talkz YouTube channel. As is common with current or former Rockstar employees, Carr’s insights were carefully measured, a necessity driven by the strict, lifetime non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) mandated by the company—a reality that was already teased leading up to the episode’s release.

In Feb I mentioned I was interviewing a Former Rockstar dev that worked on L.A. Noire , GTA V and RDR2 and how he hasnt been able to find work for over a year, well that interview is dropping this weekend so be on the lookout for it. (Its available already for Patreon and Youtube… https://t.co/Dw3D6tbgly

— Reece “Kiwi Talkz” Reilly (@kiwitalkz) March 24, 2026

Despite the legal constraints, the developer offered several fascinating glimpses into his tenure at the legendary studio:

• An Unconventional Start: Carr was recruited to the Leeds team by then-president Gordon Hall. At the time, Carr was balancing guitar instruction with running a music shop when Hall offered him a position 70 kilometers away. His debut project was Beaterator, where he was tasked with polishing and finalizing raw beats provided by Timbaland. Once his initial contract concluded, Carr consulted with his family and decided that passing up a permanent role alongside the creators of GTA 4 would be a massive mistake.
• The Blueprint for GTA 5: Carr noted that the “Three Leaf Clover” heist in Grand Theft Auto IV, along with the overlapping narratives of Niko, Johnny, and Luis, served as the conceptual foundation for GTA 5. This early experimentation paved the way for the sequel’s three-protagonist system and its central focus on elaborate heists.
• A Personal Favorite: While acknowledging that Red Dead Redemption 2 is the superior technical achievement, Carr considers the original RDR his favorite project. He remains impressed by how much the team accomplished on the limited hardware of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
• Choosing Family Over Crunch: After lending his talents to GTA: Chinatown Wars and L.A. Noire, Carr resigned in 2016. Faced with grueling 60-to-70-hour work weeks, the sound designer decided to step away from the industry’s high-pressure environment to prioritize his wife and two children.
• The Future of the Franchise: Regarding the highly anticipated GTA 6, Carr expects the game to be a sophisticated evolution, synthesizing gameplay mechanics and narrative elements from both Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption II.