# 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?

- id: art_01M5MTX1ZW5EE2AE1QJ69HBW21
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T10, T13 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T16:53:28.183Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MTX1ZW5EE2AE1QJ69HBW21

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.

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.

Curator qualifications: All excerpts located; gain staging covered qualitatively; no numeric dialogue level target in the open sources read (stated gap).

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "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"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] 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. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts · source: https://manual.ardour.org/meters/

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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