If you're thinking about going into the studio to record and aren't yet a seasoned veteran, here's some answers to a few questions you might have and some tips on how to make your time as productive as you can. The information in here is pretty specific to the way our studio works so don't be surprised if you find different definitions elsewhere.
That depends on how many songs you have, how complex and layered the music is, how skilled you are at playing it, and the quality of recording you're going for. Blood of the Lamb completed a nine-song record in 13 hours, while other bands have spent months. In general, a high-quality demo takes about two days while a full-length album on a modest budget will take between one and two weeks.
Intent. A demo is a set of recordings (usually three) done usually quickly and on a modest budget for the purpose of giving clubs, radio stations, record labels, and magazines a demonstration of what your band is capable of, with the idea that the songs will be re-recorded on a bigger budget at a later date. An EP, on the other hand, is a high-quality recording of limited length (usually 3-5 songs) recorded for the purpose of distribution by a record label. Practically, the difference between a demo and an EP is usually time and money spent and hence often the quality of the finished product.
There are three basic phases to producing a record. The first step is the recording process where all of the instruments are recorded onto separate tracks. The second step, mixing, is the phase where the individual tracks are edited and mixed together to produce a two-track stereo recording. When all the recording, editing, and mixing is finished, the resulting stereo recording is then ready for the mastering process. During the mastering process, the mastering engineer makes sure all the songs that have been recorded are complementary in sound and are free of unwanted silence (and sometimes noise) at the beginning and ending of songs. Levels are made consistent with one another, and compression and EQ is often added to enhance the sound and increase the loudness. The mastering process is also a final quality control step before the recording is sent to the CD manufacturing plant for duplication or replication.
The reason that we recommend that bands use a different mastering engineer when we record them is that a fresh set of ears will give the recordings more richness and also pick up on errors that I might have missed. Someone once said, "mastering what you've mixed is like marrying your cousin - it's possible but you don't know how the kids will turn out." While we can and do master songs that we've produced and recorded, and usually at a fraction of the cost of having it done at a mastering studio, we recommend that you don't short-change yourself on this step because it is an important and sometimes overlooked phase of the music production process.
For one-day live demos, all the musicians are recorded at once in a single room or in two separate rooms. For higher-quality projects, generally speaking the drums are set up and recorded first, usually followed by guitars, then keyboards and bass. Vocals are often done last. This is a general guideline as the order can often be changed significantly based on what the most important elements of the music are and how it's constructed.
Bring the instruments that you're going to need to use to record that day (guitars, basses, amps, drums, keyboards/samplers, etc.) Make sure you have brand new strings on your guitars and basses. For drums, if possible, put new heads on your drums. If that's not possible, at the very least have new heads on the snare and a new head on the beater side of the kick drum. Clean your cymbals. Bring tape for the drum heads and a blanket or pillow for the kick drum if it's needed. Bring new drum sticks. Plan on having your kit set up in the studio until you're done recording drums, as having to set them up and mike them again usually takes a half a day (at least) of studio time and will almost always result in different sounding drum tracks. Likewise, plan on having your guitar amps and cabs set up and miked in the studio until you're done recording for the same reason, although this isn't as quite crucial as it's a lot easier to set up and mike an amp and cabinet.
See you at the studio!