By Tine Roycroft

Dan Nelson

Take a love story, a passion for good audio, a recording booth and you’ve got Dandysound – a Worcester voice-over company that meets all of your professional audio needs.  The producers and vocal talents of Dandysound pride themselves on creating crisp, freshly made-to-order audio clips.  No piece is ever finished until the recording is exactly how the client envisioned it.

With such high standards, some might think that the stress would drive the employees batty ~ but owners, producers and vocal talents Mandy and Dan have a soft spot for each other.  It’s called marriage.

Mandy Nelson, 31, and Dan Nelson, 38, met each other at Emerson College in 1995.  She had just switched majors, he was returning to college and the two had their first audio class together.

“I hit on him,” Mandy remembers.  “He was the first guy I had ever hit on.”

Dan took the bait.  And thanks to a shared love of audio, Mandy and Dan became joined at the emotional and professional hip.

“We always used to dream and joke about it,” Mandy says.  “’We’ll call it Dandysound!’ we used to say. “

Mandy Nelson

After graduation, Mandy’s voice had already started to perk up some ears thanks to her work with Marketing Messages in Newton, MA.  Hers was the voice you would hear when you called to see what movies were playing and when they could be viewed.  The company asked if they could use her voice for projects such as auto attendant material.  The demand for her talents grew, but Mandy found herself traveling all around the state to record in various studios.  The Nelsons’ light bulb moment came when they realized they had most of the recording equipment needed to create the clips and could have their own recording studio right in their home.

Producing a voice-over is a painstaking process.  Mandy will often receive an email with a request for services and an accompanying script.  The client will review the Dandysound contract and then it’s off to the booth for Mandy, where she always gives the client exactly what they are looking for with the help of a little technology.

“We have Phone Patch,” explains Mandy.  “The phone is actually patched into the booth so the client can be there to hear the entire thing.  They can tell me any corrections they want or if they need me to do it again.  Or after one take they can say, ‘Great, we’re done!’ They really enjoy having the control.”

From that point, Dan steps in to take care of the production aspect and Mandy concentrates on keeping her voice safe for the next client.

Over the years, Mandy has done voice over work for companies such as Travelocity, Sony, Burt’s Bees, TLX Interactive, Academy Productions and Red Ribbon Events while Dan worked (and still does!) fulltime at Marketing Messages.

And Dandysound has added to both its client list and payroll.  The Nelsons have two small daughters, Maggie and Birdie, who have been bitten by the voice over bug.  Maggie is already honing her skills and her audio clips are available on www.dandysound.com with Mom’s and Dad’s.  Birdie, age 3, is still practicing for the big booth.  And Mandy and Dan aren’t done with making their fantasies come to life.  What’s the next step for the Nelsons?

“The dream is to have a big old barn where we can work with bands,” Mandy says.