For 11-time Emmy-nominated re-recording mixer Larry Benjamin, CAS, sound is not just an important part of the story — it is the story. Based at NBC Universal, Benjamin has spent more than three decades mixing dialogue and music for acclaimed dramas including Ozark and Better Call Saul. Known for his attention to dialogue intelligibility, he is constantly searching for tools that help ensure viewers don’t miss a word. That pursuit recently led him to NUGEN Audio’s new DialogCheck speech intelligibility plug-in.

Whether creating a sonic POV inside a character’s mind or blending ambient tension into dialogue-heavy scenes, Benjamin’s mixes help shape how viewers feel. “They [Jason Bateman and Vince Gilligan] really leaned into sound as another character,” he recalled. “They weren’t just ticking boxes; they embraced the mix as part of the storytelling.”

For Benjamin, dialogue clarity is both an artistic choice and a responsibility. “I love the challenge of helping a client solve a problem,” he said. “If they want to tell a story in a unique way, how can sound help do that? That’s the question I’m constantly asking. As a mixer, one of the strengths I think I bring to the table is my experience with perfecting speech intelligibility, which is incredibly crucial to my work. If I do my job right, viewers shouldn’t need to use the subtitles or the remote control. Netflix actually sent me to Southeast Asia to speak on this very topic.”

One obstacle, he noted, is the wide variety of home entertainment setups. “The speakers on modern TVs are often very small and face the wall, which just doesn’t cut it,” Benjamin explained. “I’m always trying to create a mix that translates across all devices. Even if you listen on a laptop, you should still be able to hear all the words.”

To address these challenges, Benjamin incorporated NUGEN’s DialogCheck into his workflow, using it on Poker Face season two, Netflix’s Black Rabbit and a new Vince Gilligan project coming to Apple TV+. “It’s another tool in the arsenal for creating a standard. It’s a real-time snapshot into where you are in the process,” he said. “It doesn’t have bias or hearing loss, it just judges where the spoken word sits in the mix. It’s an agnostic tool that just tells you whether the dialogue is intelligible compared to everything else.”

Though new to his process, Benjamin said DialogCheck has quickly become a safety net. He tested the plug-in in both real-time and offline using AudioSuite. “The measurements were very close,” he said. “It gave me confidence that I was in the desired range for dialogue intelligibility, even in scenes with whispers or loud music.”

Benjamin has relied on NUGEN Audio plug-ins for more than a decade, frequently turning to Halo Upmix and VisLM. “Anytime I have music that’s just a stereo mix and I need to get it into 5.1 and 7.1.2, Halo Upmix produces a great result,” he said. “I also love VisLM. It’s a very accurate meter that consistently updates as I’m mixing. The ballistics are desirable, and it gives us exactly what we need for LKFS compliance.”

Beyond individual tools, Benjamin praised NUGEN Audio for its unified interface. “There’s a unified look to all of the plug-ins, which makes usability easy,” he said. “DialogCheck had a familiarity to it when comparing it to VisLM — even though they do different things, the similar interface made it so easy to just dive right in.”

Benjamin said tools like DialogCheck are increasingly valuable as streaming, immersive audio and global distribution raise the bar for mixes. “Like NUGEN’s VisLM for loudness, DialogCheck could become the standard for clarity,” he said. “It just gives you the confidence that your mix is truly ready for the world.”

Despite decades in the business, Benjamin said his love for the craft hasn’t faded. “I love what I do, and I still get excited about the fact that a sound, or a moment of silence, can completely change how a story is told,” he said.