Using both dynamic and condenser microphone to record vocal?

Question

I just finished listening to the DVD off the new Korn album (Korn III). The DVD is "studio/videoclip" and we see real footage of the recording of the album. On most of the song, we see the singer (Jonathan Davis) being recorded with both a dynamic microphone and a condenser microphone.

So my question is: Does this setting have some advantage over using only one mic? Or maybe there is always just one mic recording at the time and it's only there, ready for any occasion?

You can see a part of the DVD here

Thanks!

Answer 1

Condenser looks to be a Neumann, can't tell what the dynamic is (if it is a dynamic, plenty of condensers in that form factor). My best guess is that the "dynamic" is being used for outboard or vst effects. IIRC their vocals are heavily distorted. Such distortion is much easier to control with a separate channel of audio. This way you can mix together distorted and clean sound to make tasty things.

Something similar was done on Tyrannosaurus Hives by the Hives. They mixed outputs from their electric guitar pickups with mics that were placed really close to their instruments, resulting in a really "bright" sound.

Answer 2

The dynamic (or what else it is) mic likely has a tighter polar pattern than the condenser and also a more midrange-focused frequency respone. Both is useful if you want to apply effects on the signal, especially distortion, because then the room reflections and the low frequency components tend to make the sound undefined/muddy. On the other hand, for a clean signal, the open and full sound of a large-diaphragm microphone is obviously quite desirable. By using two different microphones for this, it is possible to get the benefits of both ways: a powerful overdriven sound that still doesn't feel to "narrow".

It can work even better if you also place place the microphones at different distances. I once made a record where I had the singer sing directly into her SM58 as she would do live, while also recording with a large-diaphragm about 1 foot away. This can, however, lead to phase-cancelling problems if you don't adjust the track delays accordingly.