Fairbairn wished to capture a "live" feel for the album with minimal use of overdubbing. He gave Howe the nickname "Swami" for his tendency to bring elements of spirituality into the music. With two guitarists in the band at the time of recording, Howe played the lead guitars and Sherwood much of the rhythm parts and "a few of the breaks". Like "Open Your Eyes", Khoroshev plays a Hammond B-3 organ but had to use an organ simulator as the sound of the real model sometimes bled into White's drum tracks. The simulator was fed through a Leslie speaker cabinet to obtain a more authentic sound. He intended to play a greater variety of keyboard instruments such as the harmonium and accordion, but did not get to use them. Fairbairn wanted Squire to play his Rickenbacker bass for the entire album, but the bassist would suggest playing parts on different models, which Fairbairn ended up liking the sound of better and kept them in the final takes. Squire played his Rickenbacker, his signature Chris Squire Mouradian, an 8-string Ranney, a Fender Jazz bass on "Face to Face", a Tobias with B-E-A-D tuning on "New Language", and an Electra Outlaw MPC bass with a flanger effect. Select percussion parts were completed by Sherwood as White was absent from the studio due to a minor illness. There were certain tracks where Sherwood nailed the overdub in one take.