The undertaking marked the first time the band had worked with an orchestra since they did a similar thing for their second album, "Time and a Word" (1970). The band shared their idea with their fans when in January 2001, an online vote had been posted on their official website asking them if they wish to see their next tour include an orchestra. Before the album was recorded, Anderson had decided upon the title "Magnification" regardless of its style or musical content. The idea behind the title and the album itself, he explained, "eventually became the idea to magnify everything that's good around you in order to magnify everything that is good within". In early February 2001, Yes entered Santa Barbara Sound Design, a recording studio in Santa Monica, California to work on a group of demos they had come up with for the album. With Howe based in England, he arrived at the studio after the rest had settled and found they already had "industriously started writing music" in a similar fashion to when he flew over to work on "Keys to Ascension" (1996), which made him proud. English engineer and producer Tim Weidner, known for his association with former Yes singer and producer Trevor Horn and artist Seal, was brought in to work on the album at Howe's suggestion as he had worked on his third solo album "Turbulence" (1991) and praised his approach. By July 2001, the album's title was decided upon. To handle the orchestral arrangements, Yes employed American conductor, composer, and arranger Larry Groupé, a longtime Yes fan since his school days who got word of their plans to possibly make record and tour with an orchestra and got in touch with their management. When Groupé's name was suggested to the band, Anderson listened to his arrangements on the soundtrack to the drama film "The Contender" (2000) and enjoyed his musical style and use of harmonies. After several meetings with management Groupe finally met the band who after several days observing their work in the studio, supplied him a digital audio tape of three demos they had recorded and returned ten days later with orchestrations he had written for them using computer and keyboard samples at his home studio. It was a success, and Groupé worked on the remainder of the album, "doing more new things, adding different harmonies, Moog counterpoints, putting overtures in front of pieces", and conducted the final orchestral arrangements with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Anderson pitched ideas for the orchestral arrangements and places in the songs where he wished for them to be by playing a MIDI guitar, a process Howe found intriguing.