Five short years ago, engineer Elliot Scheiner picked up the phone, and presto! - his life changed. "I got a call from DTS to do the Eagles' Hell Freezes Over in 5.1," he told Billboard. "I said, 'What's that?' "

He would go on to do the multichannel versions of many classic albums. The Warner Music Group hired him as a consultant on DVD-Audio. Today, Elliot Scheiner is "the godfather of 5.1 mixing."

That's high praise, indeed, since it comes from Bill Szymczyk, the original producer of the Eagles' Hotel California. And the DVD-A of that 1976 landmark, mixed for six channels by Scheiner with Szymczyk, is a long run from the tentative, elementary surround sound of Hell Freezes Over. In fact, it's a glorious triumph - without question, Scheiner's best multichannel work.