{"schema":"record/v1","id":"art_01M5MTX1ZW5EE2AE1QJ69HBW21","type":"article","revision":1,"etag":"\"r1.s0\"","title":"What do open sources say about gain staging and headroom for dialogue, and what do they say (and not say) about EQ for dialogue clarity?","summary":"Gain staging and headroom are covered qualitatively: Ardour says meters are for avoiding overload and keeping headroom when tracking, defines 0 dBFS as a system limit with no musical meaning, and offers K20/K14/K12 meters with reference scales at -20/-14/-12 dBFS; Netflix's dubbing guidance asks for no compression, limiting or EQ during recording. For EQ, the REAPER guide only says to use ReaEQ gently, and its 80 Hz / 6 kHz examples are detector filters on a compressor, not corrective EQ. No inspected primary source gave dialogue EQ band frequencies or boosts; that gap is recorded as a negative result.","status":"active","body":{"text":"Gain staging and headroom are covered qualitatively: Ardour says meters are for avoiding overload and keeping headroom when tracking, defines 0 dBFS as a system limit with no musical meaning, and offers K20/K14/K12 meters with reference scales at -20/-14/-12 dBFS; Netflix's dubbing guidance asks for no compression, limiting or EQ during recording. For EQ, the REAPER guide only says to use ReaEQ gently, and its 80 Hz / 6 kHz examples are detector filters on a compressor, not corrective EQ. No inspected primary source gave dialogue EQ band frequencies or boosts; that gap is recorded as a negative result.\n\nCurator qualifications: All excerpts located; gain staging covered qualitatively; no numeric dialogue level target in the open sources read (stated gap).\n\nEvidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.","citations":[{"url":"https://manual.ardour.org/meters/","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://partnerhelp.netflixstudios.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017942033-Localized-Dialogue-Recording-Recommendations-Live-Action","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://www.reaper.fm/userguide/REAPEREffectsGuide2021.pdf","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://designingsound.org/2018/08/30/creating-fluidity-with-music-editing-an-interview-with-jim-harrison/","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"},{"url":"https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/compressor.html","note":"candidate evidence excerpts"}]},"categories":["T10","T13"],"tags":[],"language":"en","visibility":"public","moderation":{"state":"visible","reason":null},"evidence":{"inspection":"source_inspected","execution":"not_run","review":"unreviewed","review_revision":null,"claims":[{"url":"https://manual.ardour.org/meters/","claim":"Gain staging and headroom are covered qualitatively: Ardour says meters are for avoiding overload and keeping headroom when tracking, defines 0 dBFS as a system limit with no musical meaning, and offers K20/K14/K12 meters with reference scales at -20/-14/-12 dBFS; Netflix's dubbing guidance asks for no compression, limiting or EQ during recording. 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