Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500716
Clockwise from top left: iZotope Insight 2, NUGEN Audio LM-Correct, Youlean Loudness Meter 2. genuinely believe dialogue intelligibility and wide dynamic range are not mutually exclusive. R128 is a lot to read, but once you get to the implementation documents (of which there are several), you get to a key admission: EBU Tech 3343 section 4.1 states, "R128 recommends measuring the whole programme, independent of individual signal types like voice, music, or sound effects. This is considered to be the most generally applicable practice for the vast majority of programmes…" but "For programmes with a very wide Loudness Range (>20 LU, approximately) or with a significant difference between the Programme Loudness Level and the Voice Loudness Level (>3-5 LU, approximately), one may optionally use a so-called anchor signal for loudness normalisation, thus performing a signal type gating method" aka—wait for it—Dialogue Anchor! As I stated earlier, conceptually, large shows frequently have LRA's and dialogue to full program differentials that exceed these examples. I'd say an action-packed show could average 6-8 dB of difference between the dialogue and full program measurements (Disney and STARZ both spec a dialogue measurement of -27 and a simultaneous full program measurement of no louder than -20, which is occasionally tricky but not impossible, and fits into this range for most instances). R128 further notes, "Anchor-based loudness normalisation consequently leads to higher values of