Recording of Voices and Music in Concerts

Typically, during an actual studio recording session, each performer and/or instrument will be recorded onto a on a single discrete channel, often performing while acoustically isolated - as in a soundproof booth - from other performers and instruments.

Featured instruments typically are recorded similarly, either via microphone or via an electronic instrument's direct line output. Background vocals and instruments frequently, though not always, will be recorded as an ensemble and may be recorded either with a single mike/output or with an array of mikes/outputs.

Studio recordings may involve many sessions, often with only one component of the song - a vocal, an instrumental, a background, whatever - being recorded, taking place over several days with only that particular artist/instrument physically present at time of recording.

Orchestras and other large groups, such as choirs or larger bands, typically are recorded via an elaborate array of mikes, with featured performers/soloists having dedicated individual mikes or inputs. Live performance recordings of popular acts generally draw the sound for the recording from the master mixing board which controls the group's sound output, each performer and instrument having its own mike or line input, very similarly to a studio setup.

The various mikes and inputs are recorded to separate, individual tracks, from which the final output - the recordinag as released - is mixed down. Recording consoles can range from 4 or 8 tracks up to 64 tracks and beyond; with today's digital recording technology, theres effectively no limit to the number of tracks available.

What you see in a music video, and often what you see during a televised or even a live performance, either entirely or in part actually is the performer miming, or lip-synching, previously recorded music.

Short version - it ain't real, kid, its show business.