Back in Chicago meanwhile, James Auwarter worked alongside Craig Bauer as just one of a handful of engineering teams Kanye was using on the project. The pair found it tough to break down each song, such was the size and scope of the operation. “Bring Me Down,” in particular, was so massive it stretched the technology of the day.

“Of all the songs on Late Registration, I think that one had the most orchestra and string tracks,” Auwarter remembers. “So that session specifically, I don’t know the exact number but there was something like 160, 180 tracks in it, which was absolutely massive. We’re talking 10 years ago. Nowadays Pro Tools systems are more flexible and more powerful, but that’s still very demanding by today’s standards. It was massive 10 years ago. They were so big that we literally had to rent two new Pro Tools hardware interfaces, because as good as a Pro Tools system we had, we needed more power.”

Really interesting article on the whole creative process of the album. Brion said Kanye would steadily blow his mind with his methods

“When he hears something he likes, he knows it. He has vision, and when the guy makes quick, intuitive decisions, he just has it. I’d watch him take a rough track that I had worked on and completely stand it on its head in 10 minutes—and it’s just better. It was mind-boggling.”

passionweiss.com/2015/09/23/10-years-later-kanye-west-late-registration-interviews-with-really-doe

160-180 tracks

Nowadays rappers just have a rotation of 808, kick, hi hat, sample, synth, piano, guitar, drum wtf

Mind you this is 20 years now, the article was written in 2015

One of my favorite Kanye verses

This album is genius, I remember on ktt niggas used to call it diet CD when its completely its own thing

Late Registration is the Kanye album

LR is the best Kanye album easily imo, it's like he took the recipe for College Dropout and tweaked it to be suitable for stadiums (that's kinda the idea for graduation i know but LR is larger than life so many tracks) . higher highs, much more pop sensibility and raw emotional moments

late registration is the best kanye album and greatest rap album of all time

Man he’s really ALWAYS been the same nigga

James Auwarter worked as an engineer on Late Registration at Craig Bauer’s Hinge Studios in Chicago, but met Kanye months earlier when the rapper started informally operating out of the workplace. While none of the finished album is officially credited as being recorded there, Ye would hold preliminary sessions at Hinge during visits to his hometown. Some would stretch to over 20 hours long.

“So he’d be designing a shoe line,” Auwarter recalls. “He’s talking with some kind of fashion collaborator, maybe he’s talking about the lighting for his next tour and the lighting director is there, maybe he’s getting a haircut—there’s been plenty of times when a barber’s been in there with some loud-ass clippers while we’re trying to do something that we need to hear.” He goes on: “Kanye would just multitask, or maybe he’d be writing and just taking hours and hours and hours to write, because when he writes, he actually doesn’t write anything down, it’s always in his head. He’ll always kind of demo it when he gets several lines or a verse or half a verse. He’ll go in the booth and freestyle a little bit, knowing that he’s in no way trying to lay it down for real.”

180 tracks? god bless kanye, brandy and jon brion

stupid niggas dont know what the difference of soul and jazz/orchestral is - while both still have the gospel influence

was especially bad during yeezus era

niggas dont know anything, not even the basic of genre sonics in their ears

cd: soul + rnb + gospel - lr: orchestral + jazz + gospel - grad: pop + dance + soul

the trilogy sounds of his first 3

I love this Ye just needs creatives back around him

The 20-or-so musicians working with Brion and Gorfain were all seasoned pros, but even for them, Late Registration was a departure from the norm. While tracking “Celebration,” the musicians burst into fits of laughter as they attempted to add strings to Ye’s ardent, “You know what this is?/It’s a celebration b****es” hook. Brion himself had convinced Kanye to allow him to morph the track from its original electronic treatment to a more cinematic style in-line with his big screen scores.

shout out jon brion too - one of the illest white dudes of all time

LR is the seed of everything for me.

nothing comes close to it except tpab which is also is the vein of similar influences, just trade out the orchestral for funk. while still having the jazz and soul elements. while both STILL keep it very rap on top of it.

rap has never been as grand and majestic while feeling effortless and smooth. even in other genres it barely exisats if its not of the purely instrumental project corner.

very special albums that raised the bar for every genre. the only people that come close or peek in the same vein is the roots, which is a whole rap group and band in an orchestra-like ensemble.

so high skill while still keeping it very grounded.

I loooove LR its def way,better than college dropout and graduation
But Mr Morale is what u talking about his best album by far
Maybe the greatesr album fr

didnt this happen to one guy on ktt1

Best Kanye album for sure!

Brandy on it.

No seriously, that many f***ing tracks is crazy

180 tracks man

Thats crazy, Ye was always the same

I remember ppl would hate on that song online sometimes

That and Graduation are by far my favorites

I love MBDTF ofc but those hit the closest to home for me

His best album!

BECAUSE HES THE F***ING GOAT

he’s really the goat man wish he never went off the deep end

im of the belief its the most well produced hip hop album of all time