Dialogue is King Down on the Farm

London, UK (February 12, 2026)―After more than 30 years in the industry, Nick Fry, re-recording mixer and head of sound at U.K. post facility The Farm, often finds himself reaching for a variety of plug-ins to tackle dialogue clarity and overall loudness issues.

“Finessing dialogue is probably one of the most important things I do now,” says Fry, whose award-winning portfolio includes high-profile series like Formula 1: Drive to Survive and Netflix feature Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy. “It’s about making it audible by restoring, EQing, removing background noise and increasing clarity—all to ensure the viewer gets a clear sound experience. That’s where Nugen Audio comes in.”

At The Farm, Fry typically receives projects after the sound editorial phase. “The team starts the process of cleaning up the dialog; they add effects and edit the music,” he explains. “Then, I take it and mix it into a final soundtrack—denoising, balancing and bringing everything together to a final Atmos, 5.1 or stereo mix, depending on the deliverable. Dialogue is king. If the dialogue is clear, it’s much easier to add other elements.”

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In this process, Nugen Audio VisLM is a constant companion. “VisLM is probably the most used plug-in in our department at The Farm,” Fry adds. “It’s always sitting in the corner of our screens. You’ll find it in just about every session across the building. We’re constantly monitoring loudness and that would be incredibly difficult without VisLM.”

Fry uses VisLM to meet varying loudness requirements for different platforms. “I’ve got VisLM currently set to the Netflix setting, so I can keep track of my dialogue levels in real time. I’ll also run the final mix through VisLM to confirm compliance before delivery. The histogram view is particularly useful. It gives a great representation of the show’s loudness values and helps quickly identify any inconsistencies.”

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Another Nugen Audio staple is Halo Upmix. “It’s great when we’re working with stereo archive and need to upmix for Atmos,” he notes. “You can keep the dialogue centered, spread the music and effects across the left and right and even add some height. It gives you that extra width and makes the mix feel more dynamic.”