Dan Brumm, the sound designer behind Bluey and the voice of Uncle Stripe, relies on the Sennheiser MKH 416 and Neumann TLM 103 to capture the authentic Australian sounds that have made the series a worldwide phenomenon.
Bluey didn’t become one of the world’s most-watched children’s series by accident. A huge part of what makes it feel real is the sound, from the kookaburras and cockatoos to the creak of a playground slide. The person responsible is Dan Brumm, who has spent nearly two decades working in sound design and voice work.
“I love the fact that I get to show how beautiful Australia sounds to the rest of the world,” Brumm says. “While these birds might sound mysterious to international audiences, they are simply a part of Australia that locals hear every morning.”
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Two microphones sit at the centre of Brumm’s kit: the Sennheiser MKH 416 and the Neumann TLM 103. Each does a distinct job. The MKH 416 is his field recording workhorse, used to capture the real-world sounds that give Bluey its grounded, suburban character. Series creator Joe Brumm wanted to avoid exaggerated cartoon effects – every sound needed to feel like something a child might recognise from their own life. That meant field recording, often in less than glamorous conditions.
“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,” Brumm says. The microphone held up. “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 TLM 103 handles the studio side. Specifically, recording the child actors whose performances anchor the show. Bright, clear and precise, it’s well suited to the demands of animated dialogue and longer character performances. “We recorded most of the kids with the 103,” Brumm notes. “For longer narratives and character acting for animation, the 103 is an amazing microphone.”
Both mics also serve a professional signalling function. Working remotely with major global studios via Source Connect, Brumm finds that listing the 416 and TLM 103 on his site does a lot of the talking for him. “Studios around the world will connect with me via Source Connect. On my site, you’ll see that I’ve got a 416 and a TLM 103, and I think that just answers a lot of questions for them that I know what I’m talking about.”
Beyond Bluey, Brumm has also begun exploring foley recording with a Neumann U 87, while the MKH 8050 MS microphone has become part of his location recording kit. The through-line across all of it is the same. “[Sennheiser] has almost defined my career as a voiceover artist,” he says. “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.”
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