can you play with the click?if you cant....then you goin to need few hour,if you have no problem with click then there should be no problems,done in a couple of hour.

one hour or two...and playing to a click is not the only thing you should concern.you should be carefull with your dynamics control,overtones,and such...but as echo brain mention if you go to studio that target young musician they already have the instrument pre set and it might take as little as 15 minutes for to set up your stuff ie snares,pedal,cymbals,but if you go to a 'pro studio'it might takes more.from my experience in the professional studio where i bring two snares a few cymbals it takes me around forty minutes to set,and take around 30 minutes to lay down the beat for a 45 second jingle.its not about me all over the place but other things such as dynamic,overtone,annoying rattle etc etc...are you going to bring you own stuff?snares,cymbals etc etc?.

for a first timer i suggest you prepare(budget) at least 3 hour per song as even if you are a good drummer who never slips a beat in your entire life,once your go to a studio to record for the first time it goin to be different.the feel,the nerve,the click(it sound like a cowbell,and somewhat feel different from most of the metronome that produce beeping or what ever people refer to it.)...everything.but if you succesfully nail the track for a five minutes song in five minutes in one take.....whooooaaaa,RESPECT.

*Edited for censorship*

This post has been edited by blacktrix: Apr 28 2009, 05:32 PM

punch in is an option....sometimes when you are too tired,burnout or you no longer 'feeling it' or the producer/engineer simply annoyed with your failure in keeping with the tempo,dynamics etc etc and decide to lay the 'knife',i dont recommend it though as the studio might charge more fee.but it is kind of easy.....ohhh one more thing are you goin to lay the drum first?or your other member have lay down the guitar,bass, etc etc?....

i guess i understand the whole van halen esque fills that you trying to explain.yes you have to stay on time.
if you dont it might 'clip'...

as for the recording the drum part first,i suggest you try to talk to your band mate to record the guitar or bass first as a guide for you as it will do much help for you when you record your drum part,later they can delete the guitar and re-record the actual part that will come up on the ep's.this will help you save some$$$.
and try to look for a studio that charge per song/per project rate,rather than studio that charge by hour rate.

This post has been edited by reza.o: Apr 29 2009, 11:09 PM