McDSP SA2 Dialog Processor v7 (Native, Download)

Dialog. The focal point of any movie, television show, documentary, or for that
matter, any creative media production involving the spoken word. Add to the
mix a sweeping musical score, dozens of foley effects, and plenty more – and it
becomes clear the job of dialog mixing is a tall order. After all, if you can’t hear
what the actors are saying, why watch it at all!!
Many dialog editors and mix engineers have honed their craft to a repeatable
process so they can work through the many hours of scenes. A few more intrepid
ones have gone about creating their own custom processors for handling some
of the issues presented by dialog processing. One such box was the Sonic Assault,
originally conceived by Academy Award winning re-recording mixer Mike
Minkler, and used in over 100 major motion pictures.
But custom one-of-a-kind hardware doesn’t last forever. Arrangements were
made for McDSP to have a look at the box, and the result is the SA-2 Dialog
Processor, or SA-2 for short.

The SA-2 Dialog Processor is designed to improve the overall sound of recorded
speech. But the SA-2 is not just for dialog. It’s equally useful for vocals, and is a
great tool for adjusting the timbre of any track, a reliable de-esser, and a fine
multi-frequency compressor, in our completely biased opinion.
The SA-2 Dialog Processor is made up of 5 bands of active equalization, configured
in a variety of modes to best address common issues of dialog. Each band of active
equalization has a threshold control to determine at what signal level the active
equalizer begins to effect the signal. There are also enable buttons for each band
to quickly audition the effect of any given band. Two mode selectors – one for
controlling the ballistics of the active equalization, and a second for placing the
five bands at strategic locations in the frequency spectrum. Finally, there are input
and output gain controls for overall adjustment.