Each week on Show Us Your Rig, we feature PC gaming's best and brightest as they show us the systems they use to work and play.
Roland Koch is an audio designer and business developer at Swedish Indie studio Eat Create Sleep, which is currently working hard on the expressive new god game Crest. Being an audio designer means having plenty of synths, but that doesn't mean Roland doesn't like to slay dragons between slamming out riffs. Inspiration has to come from somewhere.
What’s in your PC?
It's the first PC I did not build myself. I got it from a German manufacturer of digital audio workstations.
Inside:
- Mainboard: Gigabyte Intel X79 Pro
- CPU: Intel Core i7 4930K HT 6x3,4 Ghz
- RAM: 32 GB (4x4096 MB) DDR3
- Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 200 Series
- A bunch of SSDs (and nevertheless too little space)
Outside:
- USB 3.0 WD Mybook w/ 4TB for backup purposes
- 2 LG 22" Monitors and an LG Flatron 19" ( The latter I bought at a garage sale for like 7 dollars )
- Kawai MP9000 88-key master keyboard
- Access Virus KC 61-key virtual analogue synth
- Kurzweil K2600 76-key sampling synth
- Roland TB-3 Bassline synth
- Roland TR-8 Drum synth
- Way too many cables
What’s the most interesting/unique part of your setup?
There are a lot of those... however, I think inspiration and workflow are tightly connected when working as a "computer-assisted" sound designer. In the past few years, I've become more professional and got a better expression in my work mostly because I was able to overcome technical hurdles. The more intuitive the workflow, the better the creative output.
If I had to decide, I would pick my sound card. It's a RME Fireface 800. Besides having a lot of ins and outs, it's got a ultra-low latency driver model that clicks really well with CPU-heavy virtual instruments like Vienna Symphonic Library of East West's Hollywood orchestra series. It has never, ever failed me.
What’s always within arm’s reach on your desk?
I work at home. Sometimes I work after my kids have gone to sleep, so my headphones are always within reach. Whenever I'm drafting music or playing for the kicks, I work standing on the right-hand rig and play a Kurzweil K2600 (lower keyboard on right rack) and Access Virus kc (upper). The large master keyboard on my desk , a Kawai MP9000 is mostly used for piano and orchestral work while editing in my DAW. For Crest, I use a lot of synths and native African drum samples.
What are you playing right now?
I'm playing Dragon Age: Inquisition and saving the world as a female Qunari rogue. I just love having everybody look up to me, literally. I'm also playing Pillars of Eternity. When I've completed these two, I'll start The Witcher 3. Whenever my wife and I get a gaming moment together, we play adventure games, currently Broken Sword 4: Angel of Death.
What’s your favorite game and why?
One of my all-time favorites is Might and Magic III: Isles of Terra. It's got a great flow to it, there is a great sense of progression and I still love the graphics. I've actually lost track of how often I've played this... I still dream of creating an homage to this epic-scale dungeon/overworld romp some day.
