How Sound Designer Dan Brumm Built Blueys Audio World with Sennheiser and Neumann

Dan Brumm has served as sound designer on Bluey, the Australian children's television series, for nearly a decade. His workflow centers on the Sennheiser MKH 416 and Neumann TLM 103 microphones, used across field recording, voiceover, and studio dialogue capture for the show.

Series creator Joe Brumm's brief called for authentic, recognizable sounds rather than exaggerated cartoon effects, leading Dan Brumm to record directly from the real-world environments depicted in the series.

If a character goes down a slide at a playground, I need to record that very sound. I went down one of these big, enclosed slides and was just banging around everywhere with my 416, says Dan Brumm, Sound Designer, Bluey. I had two of these I used out in the field recording for Bluey for eight years. I chucked them on my car seat and in creeks, supermarkets, and playgrounds. I never had a problem with any of them.

The show's soundscape incorporates Australian birdlife including lorikeets, cockatoos, and kookaburras.

I love the fact that I get to show how beautiful Australia sounds to the rest of the world, says Brumm. While these birds might sound mysterious to international audiences, they are simply a part of Australia that locals hear every morning.

The Neumann TLM 103 was used to record child actors on the series. We recorded most of the kids with the 103. It's bright, clear and precise. For longer narratives and character acting for animation, the 103 is an amazing microphone.

The MKH 416 also anchors Brumm's commercial voiceover work. In Australia, [the 416] is the standard commercial voiceover microphone. We get right up into its barrel, right into its presence region. It's just the sound of advertising here in Australia.

Brumm has also begun using the Neumann U 87 for foley recording in his studio, and the MKH 8018 MS microphone for location recordings.

[Sennheiser] has almost defined my career as a voiceover artist, says Brumm. Whether out in the field, or in the studio, I need mics I can trust will capture the sound beautifully, and that's the 416, the 87 and the 103.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/05/15/how-sound-designer-dan-brumm-bu...
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