# Frumpy: Why two microphones for vocals?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frumpy-why-two-microphones-for-vocals/827293>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 6, 2019, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frumpy-why-two-microphones-for-vocals/827293 "2019-01-06T13:17:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frumpy-why-two-microphones-for-vocals/827293/21 "2019-01-10T22:15:02Z")

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> [@Shakester](#):
>
> Mic clips, including that one, are not usually built onto mic stands. They screw out and are interchangeable. It’s still much more sensible if, for some reason, you only have one mic stand, to swap clips. And even if you couldn’t, for some reason, you’d still take the unused mic off the clip before taping another clip on top of it.

That’s why I thought it was that they needed two mics as they didn’t have a splitter. Or possibly they had the second mic running to a processor, like a Leslie cabinet for another song.

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**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/frumpy-why-two-microphones-for-vocals/827293/22 "2019-01-11T04:26:56Z")

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I don’t know if this is the case here, but as some mikes are better for certain kinds of vocals than others. For example a ribbon mike is great for light vocals, but would be blown by a rock singer. Since some singers do both light vocals and rock, they would turn off the one not suited to the song.

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