When we first began recording the INTO THE PRESENCE album we decided to record on the analog tape format. We experimented with tape speeds from 30ips to 15ips.
With 30ips we discovered a cleaner and tighter sound image, with "shiny" highs and tight low end that did not give us the effect we were looking for. We felt the drums sounded a little un-natural and stiff. The cymbals sounded slightly artificial. The guitars however were ok. With 15ips tape speed we quickly discovered the "meat" of what we were looking for in the sound. Tim's drums sounded large and natural, not quite as tight but big in the tone department. The guitars as well seemed to thicken up. The bass was a little tricky to control. With 30ips the bass guitar stayed tight and the notes had good clarity. With 15ips the bass guitar seemed to get a little "loose" and so we had to balance it with the right eq's. We decide not to go direct and ran the bass guitar though a Hiwatt tube amp and cab mic'd. It gave us the perfect balance we needed.

After deciding the tape speed we were able to continue the recording process with few adjustments. We started recording "End Game" by laying a basic click track on the last channel of the 2inch machine. After that I would begin to lay a simple scratch guitar track as a guide for the song. The following became a series of writing actual parts and setting the "mood" for what the type of music we wanted to create. We knew that we did not want to write typical parts. Tim was adamant in not playing a typical 4/4 drum beat. In recording the drums we used a custom made TAMA Starclassic made for Tim with concert Toms and no front head for the Kick drum. It gave us a very huge, open sounding drum sound while still retaining the tone. The attack was very cannon like but at the same time able to get the subtle nuances of his playing. The drums unique sound helped with the creation of the unique drums beats we agreed to. And unique was what we were after.

With that mind frame we approached everything. We found that every idea was a building up to the next.

The non-typical drum beat set the tone for creative guitar parts and melodies.
I pulled out a early 60's Danelectro hollow body with a single pickup in the center. I put a capo up high on the neck in order to create a descending harp like picking pattern.
Tim suggested the capo in order to get away from standard keys that most songs are played or written in. We recorded it clean through a 1971 100 watt Marshall and 4x12 cab, giving it a very unique sound of its own.

After that, I wrote some "gritty" guitar tracks using a custom Gibson SG and a custom Les Paul to give the song "weight" and movement. There wasn't much complication in that area because it was only meant to "lift" the song to certain dramatic points. Again a open picking pattern complimented the "high" clean guitars. When the chorus came, we agreed that moving single lines along with open chords worked best. We stayed away from "power chords" and typical chord patters.

Now as far as the bass goes, we tried to accommodate the song by pulling all the parts together while following all the descending and ascending patterns played by the guitar, as well keeping true to the root notes.

After the all the main parts were recorded we found there wasn't any tracks that didn't work together. It al seemed to work well and compliment each other.

Now the tricky part was writing a melody line for the vocals that would pull everything together as a compete composition.

I must stress that the song was written in basic form before we started recording and it was the guide we used to "produce" the tracks.

As we kept writing new parts the original melody had to be re-worked which challenged me as the vocalist to tie everything together.

This wasn't the typical singer songwriter style of recording were the vocal is tracked with a rough guitar and everything is written around that.

We new that we wanted every part musically had to be as good as the vocal and song.
It was more of an orchestral style of composition where parts intertwined each complimented the other and at the end all parts were written to be as strong as the other.
The drums as strong as the guitar, the guitars as strong as the vocal, the vocal as strong as the bass, and so forth.

Each part was just as we envisioned, being important. They all "worked" together and were equally as important.

As we were tracking vocals it was apparent that we had to write a unique melody line
that did not repeat itself. Meaning the first line had to be one melody line, and the next line had to be different from the last and so on. We approached it that way and it worked for us. We also decided it was not mandatory for the words to rhyme. By not giving ourselves limits a silly as rhyming, we were able to create what we wanted.

After listening to the instrumental of the song we were happy with how "full" it sounded and that it need lyrical content that would match the music's intensity.

And with that in mind I wrote the lyrics to "End Game".

Approaching every word like we did the parts and instruments on the recording I stayed away from typical rhyming patterns and words as much as I could.

The last thing we tracked was the solo. As with most of the parts recorded on this record, it took one or two takes. We put a Leslie speaker effect on the guitar solo using a 70's MXR analog chorus. After that the track was pretty much done.

Mixing the song

We used all MCI gear to record and mix on. A MCI 636, a MCI jh24, and a MCI jh110 1/2inch 2 track. We mixed without automation. We moved faders and punched channels in and out as quick as we could and as subtly as we could. When printing to half inch tape for the master, the anxiety creeps in because sometimes its getting late and we had run a few mixes and something didn't happen, like muting a channel or something and we would have to rewind the tape, reset all things for the beginning of the song and try it again. So there isn't room for error. We would track the songs with mixing in mind as well to make it as easy as we can to mix. So the mix concept affected the performance. We noticed how much more exciting it is to work in this environment where everything happens intentionally. Some accidents happened but we pretty much were crafting the music even in the mix, straight to tape. By working without automation the mix process becomes a performance as well and keeps us involved intensely until the master fader gets pulled down to create the fade.