The raw 88.2 kHz tracks were labeled and saved, but playback was not an option because the converters attached to Mixtreme (the soundcard) do not support sample rates above 48 kHz. Cool Edit Pro 2.0 opened and slowly extracted four WAV files from a single 1.2 GB embedded file that contained three songs, five-minutes each. File transfer from DV-40 to my aged PII-450 workstation was via Ethernet. An Audio- Technica stereo shotgun mic (in M/S mode) was placed at the second floor balcony and connected to the DV-40's analog inputs through a Great River MP-2X transformerless mic preamp for the rear channels. The session was recorded multitrack to Pro Tools, mixed on the fly via a Yamaha DM-2000 mixer to a pair of tracks on a Fostex DV-40 at 24-bit, 88.2 kHz. A jazz-trio recording I made last summer was chosen as the source material. Easy! DiscWelder STEEL opens quickly, ready to do business. My journey began by installing a Pioneer A-04 DVD burner (recommended by Minnetonka, approx $400 street) and the STEEL software to a dual-Celeron PC running Windows 2000. FYI, Minnetonka Audio Software is also the source for stand alone Dolby AC-3 and DTS software encoders. I think both tools will go a long way toward making DVD-A a convenient and respectable archiving format. CHROME has more aesthetic and technical finesse, including the ability to import Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) encoded files. There are no imaging options except for the title page and its default background. It is also possible (though not tested for this review) to create a Master DVD-A disc from STEEL for replication purposes. Whatever is not addressed in this review can likely be answered by saying, "STEEL is the plain vanilla authoring tool and CHROME is tutti frutti!" The primary purpose of STEEL is to make hi-res stereo and multi-channel audio discs that are playable on consumer equipment. Simply drag and drop any combination of stereo or surround files into their respective folders, the name of which is automatically integrated into an on-screen menu. Both are as easy to use as your favorite CD burning software. Authoring a DVD-A has never been more accessible than with Minnetonka's DiscWelder STEEL ($495 MSRP, reviewed here) or CHROME ($2495 MSRP).
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