DialogCheck
NUGEN Audio
Category Production
NUGEN Audio DialogCheck is a mono, stereo and multichannel dialog clarity meter that provides an objective measure of speech audio intelligibility, either in sections of audio clips or across entire projects. Ideally suited for use in television, radio, film, podcasting and game audio production, as well as post-production environments, DialogCheck directly addresses one of the fastest-growing challenges in modern media: ensuring that audiences can clearly understand what is being said.
The ability for a listener to understand a piece of dialog is affected by many factors: language, dialect, enunciation, reverb and effects; loudness of speech and background noise; as well as listener hearing ability, listening playback environment, speaker placement and supporting visuals, among other elements. While audio engineers cannot control all these variables, they must still deliver mixes that translate universally. DialogCheck enables users to easily evaluate speech clarity and identify problematic passages before content reaches distribution, reducing costly reworks and ensuring a better audience experience.
DialogCheck features more than one-dozen interface tools to support engineers in their dialog editing process. An integrated real-time bar meter and history graph provide instant feedback, while the distribution view and statistical values provide a clear overview of the speech intelligibility across an entire program. Furthermore, the tracking function synchronizes analysis with the audio playback in the DAW, while the unique ‘Macro View’ highlights the current audio section within the wider project, streamlining navigation. These tools empower engineers to make precise adjustments and verify improvements instantly.
At the heart of DialogCheck is the Listening Effort Meter (LE-Meter), developed by Fraunhofer IDMT. By combining automatic speech recognition with psychoacoustic modeling, LE-Meter visualizes the listening effort to understand a passage of speech. This innovation allows engineers to anticipate real-world listening challenges, aligning their work with the way in which audiences will actually experience the content.
What sets DialogCheck apart is its blend of scientific rigor and workflow integration. While traditional loudness meters ensure compliance, DialogCheck fills the industry’s growing need for intelligibility compliance. In an era when audiences consume content across streaming platforms, mobile devices and smart TVs, across multiple languages, dialogue clarity has become a key metric for accessibility and audience satisfaction.
Like all NUGEN Audio solutions, DialogCheck also comes with a variety of factory settings and presets, while also allowing engineers to create and recall custom profiles via the featured “Preset Bar.” Its flexibility ensures that no matter the format or market, audio professionals can deliver speech that is consistently intelligible, accessible and ready for global distribution.
DialogCheck is not limited to post-production. In pre-production, it can be used to assess different microphone configurations, performance styles or room setups to ensure that raw recordings start as near to optimal clarity as possible. This capability helps productions save time, improve quality and minimize the need for corrective fixes later in the pipeline.
DialogCheck gives audio professionals a new standard: not just measuring dialog loudness, but ensuring it is truly understandable.
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