BehringerBA 19A Half-Cardioid Condenser Boundary Microphone for Instrument Applications

The Behringer BA 19A Half-Cardioid Condenser Boundary Microphone is a fantastic choice for capturing clear and balanced audio in instrument applications. Its half-cardioid pickup pattern effectively isolates sound from the source while minimizing ambient noise, making it ideal for drums, pianos, and other acoustic instruments. The microphone delivers crisp and detailed sound quality, with a built-in switchable equalizer to fine-tune the output for different settings. Its rugged construction ensures durability, while its compact design allows for discreet placement. Overall, the BA 19A offers excellent performance at an affordable price, making it a reliable choice for both studio and live use.

This microphone surprised me, the flat setting is great for vocals or instruments, the low pass setting brought my 16” kick to life and makes the subs thump. I placed it through the porthole and on the foam that it comes with pointed at the beater.

I use this for getting sound from a piano into the mixer board for church services and streaming. The piano is actually an electric grand piano. It has speakers built into what would be the soundboard and an external speaker on the bottom of the body. There is a line output but it does not work. The piano is not ours. It belongs to the facility that we rent for services so I cannot try to fix the line out.The piano sounds fine on its own in the worship area and did not need to connect to the mixer. But for streaming it doesn't work out. I placed the microphone on the soundboard between the two internal speakers and connected to a mic input on the mixer console. It sounds great with all the notes coming through nicely. I leave the filter switch on the flat setting. My setup may not be acceptable to picky audiophiles, but it serves our purpose very nicely. It's a condenser so it does need phantom power.It works great for us. Provides very good sound at a good level, and sound great on the stream. Also a very nice price.

I was using an SM57 before with a blanket inside the kick. I took that out and replaced it with 2" sound foam that goes around the bottom 1/3 of the drum, adhered with 3M strips to the bottom. Then I purchased this mic. It is AWESOME and soooo much better for low end and punch. I just rest it on top of the new foam I put in. Numerous compliments already from both sound guys and the audience. This mic DOES take phantom power, but your mixer likely has that built in. It has a nice small blue aura light at the XLR connection so you know it is active/on. Very sturdy mic too, built to last. It even comes with a nice hard shell case! Bonus! Sounds great with live recordings too! I've been playing drums and with gear for 25 years, and I am impressed with this microphone very much!

As an audio engineer, this is a crucial mic to have in my setup. Quality is nice and the mic lights up blue around the xlr ring to give you a visual cue that it is on. This is good for our stage audio so performers can see it and wont step on it. We’re running it for capturing tap dancers on stage and it works very well with a little EQ. It definitely has a naturally dark tone with a few db bias towards the low end. Pulling out the bass lets the tap mics get nice and loud before reaching feedback, and lets me get the clicks to come thru the PA over the top of our music mix. The half cardioid pickup is providing a lot of magic for me as an engineer, it works great and rejects audio coming from the nearby PA (within 10ft of mics)

For context, I'm a sound engineer (both live and studio work).I bought this mic after reading other reviews. I have to admit I was skeptical.I put this through it's paces in both a live and studio setting, and I was very pleasantly surprised.Sonic characteristics:Great "Live" kick sound out of the box. It's got a lot of low end punch.Compared to my favorite boundary mic (Beyerdynamic TG71c) it lacks some top end beater click, but you can get that back with a little EQ.This probably wouldn't be my first choice in the studio due to the lack of beater click compared to other options, but it really holds it's own. Totally usable, and a great compliment to other kick mics that may not offer as much low end.I haven't had any issues with feedback, but to be fair the bands I work for usually run in-ears, so stage volume is low to begin with.While I think there are better options overall, for $70, this should be in every engineer's mic locker. If you tour or run a venue, this is a no brainer. Sounds great, and if it gets lost or destroyed, it's not too painful to replace.The only thing I don't really care for is the bright blue LED that indicates phantom power. I wish it was a little more subtle. It will definitely stick out on a dark stage. It's bright enough that it will probably illuminate the resonant head a little bit with the lights out. Might be desirable, might not.

Was recommended by a recording studio, which I found surprising as it is one of the lower cost boundary mics, but head to head with the Shure and SE, I preferred the tone from this mic for bass drum and cajon. Thick bottom sound.

Great mic!