2.1 Monitoring levels

Music and sound effects exist to support the story; dialogue tells the story. It must be well recorded because it will have a prominent place in the mix. Since dubbing and ADR are done in a studio, there should be no reason to deliver anything but great audio. Production houses often have very specific rules about how dialogue should be recorded. Here is an example of typical requirements for dialogue levels:

It is assumed that the monitoring system is properly calibrated to a -18 or -20 dBFS = 0 VU reference with SPL levels of either 79 or 85 dBSPL, depending on the room size and delivery requirements. It is very important to record in a calibrated room; however, a discussion about monitor calibration is beyond the scope of this article.

When you know that your room is calibrated and you begin a session, you may find that the levels of the original mix or the M&E tracks are too loud to listen to for extended periods of time. If you are working on a feature this will be true most of the time; less so for TV shows. You do not have to listen at full volume¹³, but make sure that you establish a reference level that you can remember, and stick to it. Look at the meters, and associate your preferred listening volume to what they show.

The dialogue mixer should bear in mind that while trusting the ears is very important, a glance at the meters every now and then will spare everyone the grief of misjudged levels. The ear gets tired, monitoring levels change from one session to the next, and recordists who go by ear risk compromising the consistency of their work.¹⁴