Kanye West released “All of the Lights” on his fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010). The song received overwhelming praise and is still popular today, most recently performed live at last years Super Bowl Halftime show where Rihanna sang her verse.
In terms of production, the song has many elements, including 14 vocalists, piano, keyboard, brass and strings section. The vocalists include, Kanye West’s favorite and very well known artists. Rihanna leads the chorus, but Fergie, Kid Cudi, John Legend, Tony Williams, The-Dream, Charlie Wilson, Drake, Elly Jackson, Ryan Leslie, Ken Lewis, Alvin Fields, and even Elton John, who also performs piano for the song are featured. The vocals are all layered together, creating a unique vocal texture on the record. It is not the kind of thing where you can distinguish the artists’ voices from one another. It is very operatic and orchestral sounding, while still remaining in the hip-hop genre.
To process and record his music, Kanye West has been known to use DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) Pro Tools. He and others on his production team have also been seen using FL studio. He prefers analog styles of music production, but has adapted to digital styles over the years. When using DAW Pro tools he cuts, mixes and pitches the samples using the ASR-10, then processes the sound with Pro Tools. His studio setup itself is unknown. Cyhi The Prynce described his experience being in that studio during the recording process as, “they had everything in there…you see really musical people coming together like a real orchestra.”
DAW Pro Tool Screenshot^
I believe the Tampa Bay Times put it best when they wrote, “Everything Kanye West has ever believed himself to be came to life in this song: The stadium-sized horns, the chilling Rihanna hook, the snarl of cockiness in his voice, the insane list of uncredited cameos .. It’s the moment King Midas figured out how to use his touch.” The song truly is a pop anthem that will go down as one of the best songs of it’s decade, and all time in my own opinion and possibly many others.