Jason Becker - End Of The Beginning

Jason Becker - Perspective (1995)
Most of 'End of the Beginning' came to me on a warm afternoon, while I was half asleep. When I fully woke up it took a lot of concentration not to forget it. I pull it all on tape with guitar, which was a big strain at this point. I wanted it to have orchestral sounds, so Mike Bemesderfer helped me pick a computer and synthesizer and gave me lessons. This is how much of this album was written: on a Macintosh with music program called "Vision", and a "Proteus 2". Let me say that I had always thought that computers and music didn't mix. In some ways that is very true but I could not have done this album otherwise. As with everything it's the person behind the computer that makes it or breaks it. I could have as many tracks and as many different instruments as I wanted. Some parts I could play with my right hand because it still had some strength, but some parts were just physically too hard. The computer allowed me to show everything down. I recorded all of the album using this method except 'Rain', 'Blue', and 'Meet M in the Morning'. It sounded very good, with most of feelings I wanted, but most of the sounds weren't quite real enough, and I wanted some live musicians. This whole song was played by real musicians. There are no violinists, but all of the string parts were played by a keyboardist, Danny Alvarez, using violin samples. Michael Lee Firkins' part was recorded at my house.
Michael Lee Firkins - Lead Guitar, First Clean Guitar
Danny Alvarez - Piano, Synthesizer, Keyboards
Mike Bemesderfer - Flute
Steve Hunter - Clean Guitar (Middle Section)
Steve Rosenthal - Cymbals