mix-dialogue-for-video

name	mix-dialogue-for-video
category	media
description	Mix dialogue for video across microphones, locations, edits, music, and delivery environments. Use when spoken content needs consistent intelligibility and loudness in a finished program.

mix-dialogue-for-video

Prioritize intelligibility and natural continuity before loudness or polish.

Procedure

1. Confirm locked picture, sample rate, channel layout, delivery target, and source organization.
2. Align, choose, and phase-check microphones before combining them.
3. Repair clicks, dropouts, hum, noise, reverb, and plosives conservatively.
4. Match tone and room sound across edits without erasing natural voice character.
5. Automate clip gain and volume before using compression and limiting.
6. Equalize and control dynamics in context with music and effects.
7. Check intelligibility at low level, on speakers, headphones, and representative devices.
8. Measure loudness, true peak, phase, and channels after final encoding.
9. Export mix stems, master, and a dialogue QC report.

Guardrails

• Never process until artifacts become more distracting than the source issue.
• Do not use noise removal to conceal missing or fabricated dialogue.
• Protect hearing with safe monitoring levels.

Done

• A dialogue mix, stems, and QC report are delivered
• Sync, edits, intelligibility, loudness, peak, and channels are verified
• The encoded program passes a complete listening review