Dave Nelson Asbjoern Andersen


Dave Nelson is a Sound Designer, Re-Recording Mixer, and owner of Outpost Studio SF. He has been in the business of sound for over 30 years. His credits include five films with Werner Herzog including Little Dieter Needs to Fly and Kinski, Haskel Wexler’s Who Needs Sleep, Finn Taylor’s Dream with the Fishes, also Kung Phooey, Rocko’s Modern Life, The Godfather (video game), One Way to Valhalla, Pushing Dead and Ghostbox Cowboy. Dave was an early pioneer in the field of using midi with Pro Tools in the recording studio and was a leader in using Pro Tools for doing sound for film.
Written by Doug Siebum
Please share:
SoundMorph Halloween Sale 2025

 

DS: You’ve had a long career, can you talk about the start of your career and how you ended up in film sound?

DN: I spent 10 years in a band from Portland, Oregon called Upepo, which was one of the first World Beat bands. We played every college town on the west coast. Mostly all instrumental. Around 1982, we thought about 10 years of that was plenty. I moved down here to San Francisco with another musician, Leonard Marcell and we built a little home studio on Bush Street. We got some pretty big clients right away, one of which was Jaco Pastorius. We were in a very small space, but we had an 8 track and started using electronic instruments and syncing them up with time code, which was pretty radical at the time. Then we realized that there was an interesting variety of clients that we might have, pursuing this new way of syncing, other than mag tape and film stock. We decided that we needed a larger building. We moved to 235 Moulten Street with a guy named Dieter Weihl He had a garage there and we built out a much more extensive studio. Right around the same time, my friend Josh Rosen was working at Digidesign and he said “hey, why don’t you try out this new thing that we’re working on called Pro Tools.” Then we bought the first Euphonix console. All of a sudden, someone suggested “well if you can sync up a band playing, couldn’t you sync up a film” and I said “geez, I guess we could.”
 

DS: What prompted you to open your own business?

DN: It was a very natural thing. We started in a garage and it was very humble. Although we had an interesting room. It was the most clear opportunity for me in a new town, where I didn’t really know very many people down here. We had our own projects and we had a band called AutoTom and we played at The Stone a few times. We were really inspired by Laurie Anderson too and the whole thing that she was doing with projection on stage with live players. We just needed our own studio to explore that opportunity.
 



GHOSTBOX COWBOY - Official Trailer


Ghostbox Cowboy

DS: What type of projects do you take on now and what services do you provide?

DN: We’re a very varied studio. It’s interesting because everybody who works there was a musician at one time, but we’re not really in the music business anymore. We don’t want to say that we’re not in the music business, because it’s in our heart and we still take music jobs, but sound to picture and voice and Foley recording is our main focus. We have such great rooms here that are very voice centric, so audiobooks and ADR and anything voice related has become one of our clearest income streams.
 

Studio 1

DS: And you’re also working on a toy, is that correct?

DN: That’s right, we work for a company called Tonies USA. They designed a device called a Toniebox with a speaker in it and there’s little plastic figurines that have a chip in the bottom that holds these children’s stories. The suggestion is that rather than giving a child 4-5 years old a laptop or an iPad or even a phone, that maybe their imaginations might be stimulated in a different way, by listening to audio only children’s stories. They can have their different stories in these little cute plastic figurines, put them on top of the box, and listen to these different children’s stories.
 

DS: You recently moved locations. Can you talk about building your new studio?

DN: This is a very San Francisco story. My previous studio, the building sold and the new owners decided that rather than continuing renting to us and two other recording studios, they wanted to build an office building in an area that had high vacancy rates. We tried to see if there was some room for negotiation there and there wasn’t. I was neighbors with Kim Salyer, who used to be at Video Arts and now has Color A Go-Go here in the same neighborhood. He said “I have more room than I know what to do with, why don’t you come over next door here and take a look and perhaps take over my lease”, which we did. There was one studio that was in this building, but there were a lot of potential rooms that were pretty big with tall ceilings that were office rooms. We spent a lot of time and energy and money developing these into our current studios, which we now have four of in this location.
 

I believe we now have the only Foley stage with dedicated Foley pits in San Francisco.

DS: Can you describe the 4 different rooms that you have and how you constructed them? And what makes each of the rooms unique?

DN: I believe we now have the only Foley stage with dedicated Foley pits in San Francisco. There were some Foley pits here previously, but they weren’t done to a professional standard. The problem was they were really deep. You could have actually hurt yourself in them. So we rebuilt all the Foley pits, we re-poured the concrete and got dirt and gravel. We made them so that they’re really legitimate Foley pits. That same room also sounds really good for ADR. So we have one room that mainly does those two services, we do Foley in there and we do voice recording, mostly ADR. That’s our Studio 4.

Recording VO in Studio 4

Studio 3 is very very very dead and quiet. We’ve done a lot of A.I. recording with Nvidia. The rooms that you need to do A.I. recording in, have to be the quietest possible rooms. Desmond Shea who I knew from Poolside Studios, built the booth and control room out that’s just completely quiet. It’s as quiet as a whisper room, but it has natural sunlight that comes into it from our Atrium, so it’s really unique in the voice recording industry. We’re also doing a lot of music mastering out of that control room. We have some unbelievable speakers in there and that’s where a lot of our music business takes place.

Then we share a room with Kim Sayler, who I mentioned before, that we’re doing podcasts in. That’s our Studio 2. It’s a very unusual room. It has couches in there. It’s very comfortable. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback about how it feels in the room when people come in to do podcasts and vidcasts.

Studio 1 is a 5.1 mixing studio. It was calibrated by Dan Sperry from Dolby. What sounds great here, sounds great in movie theaters. It also has a nice live room that we’re sitting in right now. This live room is a little bit deader than the Foley room, but it’s pretty versatile. You can record pretty much anything in this room and it sounds good. It’s really quiet, but a little more live than our studio 3 room.
 

Dave Nelson mixing in Studio 1

DS: What were some of the things that you considered when you were looking to build out your rooms and what the rooms were going to be like?

DN: We wanted them to be big enough to hold two or three people. When we came over and looked at the place before we built it out, we realized that the high ceilings were amazing, these are 15 foot high ceilings in here. Of course, they’re all baffled off, so you don’t notice how high they are, but it has a subtle effect on the sound. We saw what we had here and realized that we could do a lot of different things. I think the recording studio business has changed a bit. One thing we don’t have is a room big enough to record a band in. Other places in town like Hyde Street Studios do that for a living. It didn’t make any sense for us to try to compete on that level. So we basically do everything else but drum tracking. Although we do have one empty room that’s completely undeveloped, that we could expand into in the future and include that service.
 


Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:


Trending right now:

  • Bloody Nightmare is a modern horror cinematic library aimed at the most cutting edge bone chilling productions out there.

    Whether you work in sound design, as a composer, trailer editor or as an electronic musician, Bloody Nightmare is a valuable new wave of Horror sounds that will surely cause visceral moments of terror and dread!

    91 %
    OFF
  • Introducing MOTION GRAPHICS, a complete Motion Graphics sound effects library from SoundMorph!

    Motion Graphics focuses on all the elements you might need for sound design on a trailer, a cinematic scene or a visual that is heavy with motion graphics, whether it be abstract or straight forward, Motion Graphics has all the elements and textures you could think of. Motion Graphics are something all of us sound designers run into at one point or another, so this library is an excellent addition to your sound effects tool box.

    Motion Graphics was created by and in collaboration with sound designer Rostislav Trifonov (SoundMorph Elemental library contributor).

    Motion Graphics features 650 24bit/96 kHz .wav files, all meticulously embedded with Soundminer & Basehead metadata.

    The library features:

    • 450 + designed sound effects
    • 190 + source audio files
    • Whooshes
    • Impacts
    • Risers
    • Stingers
    • Low end and Sub Bass
    • Impulse Responses
    • Passbys
    • Textures – noise, grit, glitch
    • Ambiences
    • Buttons and Clicks
    • Mechanical Elements
    • Granular effects
    91 %
    OFF
  • ⏰ For a very limited time:
    Add this library to the cart and enter ah4launch in the cart coupon field – to sprinkle an extra launch discount, on top of the current discount!

    Animal Hyperrealism Vol IV is a sound library containing animal vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 2000 individual sounds in 294 files. The sounds were recorded in zoos, and wildlife centers.

    The asset list includes but is not limited to: hippos, hyenas, vultures, dwarf mongooses, elephants, African cranes, parrots, tigers, pigmy hippos, rhea ostriches, brown bears, pheasants, wildebeests, African wild dogs and many more. The content has been recorded at 192KHz with a Sanken CO100K, an Avisoft CMPA and a Sennheiser 8050 for center plus two Sennheiser MKH8040 for stereo image.

    The resulting ultrasonic spectrum is rich and allows for truly extreme manipulation of the content.

    15 %
    OFF
  • Cute but Deadly Chihuahua is a Mini-Library consisting of barks, snarls, growls, yelps, whimpers, breaths and chuffs from my late dog Bellatrix. This library contains about 10 minutes worth of her vicious vocals and frustrated whimper yelps. This library really shines when you play with pitch and speed creating cute alien vocals or horrific monster growls. I’ve used these recordings in various feature films such as Piranha 3DD and The Devil Inside. She may be gone but her bark lives on!


Latest releases:

  • A collection of 135 potion sound effects.

  • A collection of 140 individual power up ability sound effects.

  • A collection of 103 bowling sound effects.

  • São Miguel – Flows (supporter pack) is a collection that includes 14 looped files.
    The palette explores the sounds of the ocean, waterfalls, and hot springs. These recordings were captured in Moihnos (Cascata do Limbo, Praia dos Moihnos), Ribeira dos Caldeirões, Ponta do Arnel, and Furnas (Caldeira).
    Recorded in 96 kHz/24 bit, these sounds are easy to navigate and were captured using a Sony PCM D100.

  • ATTENTION: The audio preview only simulates gameplay to demo just a portion of the library’s content.


    Reward your players with the jackpot of 340 high-quality (170 original sounds), easy to use audio files that provide you with all the sports-themed audio your games will ever need!

    Create a casino masterpiece and a true immersion in your slots with this one-of-a-kind collection of royalty free sounds and music, expertly handcrafted to be a perfect fit for your games.

     

    ALL SLOT GAME ELEMENTS YOU WILL EVER NEED

    With numerous INTERFACE SOUNDS, such as REEL SPIN START BUTTONs, REEL SPINNING noises, REEL STOPs, BET INCREASE and DECREASE sounds, and all other interface buttons and TRANSITIONS, as well as WIN PAYOUT SOUNDs, such as short WIN TUNES, MUSICAL PAYOUT ROLLUP COUNTERs, SELECT and REVEAL jingles, various SYMBOL sounds, and FREE GAMES / FEATURE MUSIC LOOPs to fit any scene or situation (from strip-back relaxing background to upbeat catchy themes), this library is a perfect choice for your Online Video Slot, Mobile or even Land-based Casino Games!

     

    SPORTS-THEMED SOUNDS FOR YOUR FEATURE GAMES

    Need BASKETBALL game sounds, SOCCER / FOOTBALL, HOCKEY, BASEBALL, GOLF, TENNIS, TABLE TENNIS / PING PONG, SKIING / BOBSLED, SWIMMING or WATERPOLO, BOXING and even more? We got you covered!

    With all essential action and foley sounds for most common Oympic Sports that have been included in this pack, along with ambiences and miscellaneous sounds – such as AIR HORNS, ARENA AMBIENCES, CROWD CHEERING and CHANTING, JUDGE WHISTLE, and more – this sound effects library will leave nothing to be desired!

     

    ENGAGING SPORTS MUSIC IN ALL GENRES

    Immerse your players in gaming experience like no other with almost every music genre commonly found in sport events, games and tv program. We have also included multiple variations and edits to make your workflow as fast and easy as posible.

    From INDIE ROCK, HARD ROCK and METAL, to multiple sub-genres of ELECTRONIC Music, FUNK, ROCK BLUES and other genres, from SHORT STINGS, JINGLES and DROPS, to LOOPS, music mixes in VARIOUS INTENSITIES, included content here is a must have in your audio collection.

     

    With each audio file being drag-and-drop ready, presented in high quality MP3 and WAV formats with meticulously labelled keywords for your convienience, you will create the perfect gaming experience for your players in a matter of moments!


    So STEP UP YOUR SLOTS, GRAB ATTENTION and BUILD CONNECTION with YOUR PLAYERS! 

    DOWNLOAD NOW!


    SPORTS SLOTS at a Glance:

    • Symbol Sounds, Buttons and other Interface Sounds, Reel Spin and Stops, Trigger Sounds, Selection and Reveal sound effects, Music Loops for every scene and situation, Win Tunes and Rollups, Payouts and other short Celebration Tunes + much more!
    • Sports-Themed Feature Sounds: Basketball, Soccer / Football, Hockey, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, Table Tennis / Ping Pong, Skiing / Bobsled, Swimming, Waterpolo, Boxing and more
    • Numerous Variations and Edits of the assets, such as multiple lengths, intensities, looping and non-looping variants, and more;
    • Ready to use – requires no editing, labelling or splicing. Categorized, organized and individually labeled files for maximum use efficiency;
    • FREE Updates to higher versions, FOREVER!

    Enrich your slot IP in seconds with beautifully mixed, AAA quality sounds brought to you by our team of industry veterans, whose 1000+ slot games worth of experience have culminated in this extraordinary sound pack!



    DON’T DELAY any longer, you are only a step away from bringing your game to life. Take action and DOWNLOAD NOW!

    10 %
    OFF
Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:


DS: Can you talk about the gear in the different rooms?

DN: Well, we’re an all Pro Tools studio, so we have Pro Tools Ultimate in every room. Certainly the 5.1 HDX mixing system is the biggest and most powerful system that we have. All the rooms have all the same plugins, so it’s all really versatile. That’s how we wanted to have it and that’s how it’s working now.
 

DS: Okay, and you have a lobby, an atrium, and a kitchen.

DN: Yeah, it’s really impressive when you walk in here. With these gigantic tall ceilings and an atrium that has natural sunlight coming into it. That’s the same sunlight that leaks through a window into Studio 3. It’s so impressive. It’s beautiful to walk in here. That is one thing that I’ve never had in any of the other 6 studios that I’ve built in San Francisco. We’ve never really had a great entryway. It really does have a comforting effect on clients when they walk in and they think “whoa, this is nice.”

DS: Right, well I think that’s a big bonus for Studio 3, for people doing audiobooks, where people are going to be reading for 6, 7, or 8 hours in a day. Having that natural light keeps them from getting fatigued.

DN: Yeah, that’s exactly right, and we’ve received that feedback from the voice over artists that are reading audiobooks and are in there for 6 hours or more. It’s a good feeling for a small dead room. It has a lot of life to it.

DS: And then the atrium is a great place to take lunches and breaks and give yourself some natural light during the day.

DN: Correct.
 



Little Dieter Needs To Fly Trailer


Little Dieter Needs To Fly

we want to keep this spark of creativity in San Francisco, 415, right in the middle of the City, alive for filmmakers, musicians, and all kinds of audio-visual artists.

DS: Do you have anything else that you would like to add?

DN: We love being in San Francisco. Obviously, San Francisco has a gigantic legacy of sound associated with the city. With all the things that’s going on with what we went through with COVID, we want to keep this spark of creativity in San Francisco, 415, right in the middle of the City, alive for filmmakers, musicians, and all kinds of audio-visual artists.
 

DS: And you can also connect with other studios as well?

DN: Absolutely, with Source Connect, Audio Movers, Zoom or any number of things that are available. There’s quite a few options and we have them all.

DS: Thank you, Dave.

DN: You’re welcome, Doug.

A great big thank you to Dave Nelson for taking the time to talk about his studios. You can find Dave Nelson on IMDb here and at Outpost Studio SF here. Don’t forget to check out some pictures of the studios here.

 

Please share this:


 



 
 
THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Bloody Nightmare is a modern horror cinematic library aimed at the most cutting edge bone chilling productions out there.

    Whether you work in sound design, as a composer, trailer editor or as an electronic musician, Bloody Nightmare is a valuable new wave of Horror sounds that will surely cause visceral moments of terror and dread!

    91 %
    OFF
  • Introducing MOTION GRAPHICS, a complete Motion Graphics sound effects library from SoundMorph!

    Motion Graphics focuses on all the elements you might need for sound design on a trailer, a cinematic scene or a visual that is heavy with motion graphics, whether it be abstract or straight forward, Motion Graphics has all the elements and textures you could think of. Motion Graphics are something all of us sound designers run into at one point or another, so this library is an excellent addition to your sound effects tool box.

    Motion Graphics was created by and in collaboration with sound designer Rostislav Trifonov (SoundMorph Elemental library contributor).

    Motion Graphics features 650 24bit/96 kHz .wav files, all meticulously embedded with Soundminer & Basehead metadata.

    The library features:

    • 450 + designed sound effects
    • 190 + source audio files
    • Whooshes
    • Impacts
    • Risers
    • Stingers
    • Low end and Sub Bass
    • Impulse Responses
    • Passbys
    • Textures – noise, grit, glitch
    • Ambiences
    • Buttons and Clicks
    • Mechanical Elements
    • Granular effects
    91 %
    OFF
  • ⏰ For a very limited time:
    Add this library to the cart and enter ah4launch in the cart coupon field – to sprinkle an extra launch discount, on top of the current discount!

    Animal Hyperrealism Vol IV is a sound library containing animal vocalisations, from real to designed creatures totaling more than 2000 individual sounds in 294 files. The sounds were recorded in zoos, and wildlife centers.

    The asset list includes but is not limited to: hippos, hyenas, vultures, dwarf mongooses, elephants, African cranes, parrots, tigers, pigmy hippos, rhea ostriches, brown bears, pheasants, wildebeests, African wild dogs and many more. The content has been recorded at 192KHz with a Sanken CO100K, an Avisoft CMPA and a Sennheiser 8050 for center plus two Sennheiser MKH8040 for stereo image.

    The resulting ultrasonic spectrum is rich and allows for truly extreme manipulation of the content.

    15 %
    OFF
Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • A collection of 135 potion sound effects.

  • A collection of 140 individual power up ability sound effects.

  • A collection of 103 bowling sound effects.

  • São Miguel – Flows (supporter pack) is a collection that includes 14 looped files.
    The palette explores the sounds of the ocean, waterfalls, and hot springs. These recordings were captured in Moihnos (Cascata do Limbo, Praia dos Moihnos), Ribeira dos Caldeirões, Ponta do Arnel, and Furnas (Caldeira).
    Recorded in 96 kHz/24 bit, these sounds are easy to navigate and were captured using a Sony PCM D100.

  • ATTENTION: The audio preview only simulates gameplay to demo just a portion of the library’s content.


    Reward your players with the jackpot of 340 high-quality (170 original sounds), easy to use audio files that provide you with all the sports-themed audio your games will ever need!

    Create a casino masterpiece and a true immersion in your slots with this one-of-a-kind collection of royalty free sounds and music, expertly handcrafted to be a perfect fit for your games.

     

    ALL SLOT GAME ELEMENTS YOU WILL EVER NEED

    With numerous INTERFACE SOUNDS, such as REEL SPIN START BUTTONs, REEL SPINNING noises, REEL STOPs, BET INCREASE and DECREASE sounds, and all other interface buttons and TRANSITIONS, as well as WIN PAYOUT SOUNDs, such as short WIN TUNES, MUSICAL PAYOUT ROLLUP COUNTERs, SELECT and REVEAL jingles, various SYMBOL sounds, and FREE GAMES / FEATURE MUSIC LOOPs to fit any scene or situation (from strip-back relaxing background to upbeat catchy themes), this library is a perfect choice for your Online Video Slot, Mobile or even Land-based Casino Games!

     

    SPORTS-THEMED SOUNDS FOR YOUR FEATURE GAMES

    Need BASKETBALL game sounds, SOCCER / FOOTBALL, HOCKEY, BASEBALL, GOLF, TENNIS, TABLE TENNIS / PING PONG, SKIING / BOBSLED, SWIMMING or WATERPOLO, BOXING and even more? We got you covered!

    With all essential action and foley sounds for most common Oympic Sports that have been included in this pack, along with ambiences and miscellaneous sounds – such as AIR HORNS, ARENA AMBIENCES, CROWD CHEERING and CHANTING, JUDGE WHISTLE, and more – this sound effects library will leave nothing to be desired!

     

    ENGAGING SPORTS MUSIC IN ALL GENRES

    Immerse your players in gaming experience like no other with almost every music genre commonly found in sport events, games and tv program. We have also included multiple variations and edits to make your workflow as fast and easy as posible.

    From INDIE ROCK, HARD ROCK and METAL, to multiple sub-genres of ELECTRONIC Music, FUNK, ROCK BLUES and other genres, from SHORT STINGS, JINGLES and DROPS, to LOOPS, music mixes in VARIOUS INTENSITIES, included content here is a must have in your audio collection.

     

    With each audio file being drag-and-drop ready, presented in high quality MP3 and WAV formats with meticulously labelled keywords for your convienience, you will create the perfect gaming experience for your players in a matter of moments!


    So STEP UP YOUR SLOTS, GRAB ATTENTION and BUILD CONNECTION with YOUR PLAYERS! 

    DOWNLOAD NOW!


    SPORTS SLOTS at a Glance:

    • Symbol Sounds, Buttons and other Interface Sounds, Reel Spin and Stops, Trigger Sounds, Selection and Reveal sound effects, Music Loops for every scene and situation, Win Tunes and Rollups, Payouts and other short Celebration Tunes + much more!
    • Sports-Themed Feature Sounds: Basketball, Soccer / Football, Hockey, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, Table Tennis / Ping Pong, Skiing / Bobsled, Swimming, Waterpolo, Boxing and more
    • Numerous Variations and Edits of the assets, such as multiple lengths, intensities, looping and non-looping variants, and more;
    • Ready to use – requires no editing, labelling or splicing. Categorized, organized and individually labeled files for maximum use efficiency;
    • FREE Updates to higher versions, FOREVER!

    Enrich your slot IP in seconds with beautifully mixed, AAA quality sounds brought to you by our team of industry veterans, whose 1000+ slot games worth of experience have culminated in this extraordinary sound pack!



    DON’T DELAY any longer, you are only a step away from bringing your game to life. Take action and DOWNLOAD NOW!

    10 %
    OFF

   

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags are not allowed.