Some packages include up to 3 hours of studio time for vocals and mixes. A small studio space with one or two microphones will likely save you a few hundred dollars compared to a much larger recording and production studio or a recording facility with multiple rooms, gobos and a wide variety of recording equipment. If you're talking about Los Angeles and the demo is for a musical act you're trying to release, make sure it's more than one song. Learning the audio engineering or music production process can even help you write songs and organize your music.
I have seen albums that people enter, having worked a lot on them at home, and they come to a very good studio to cut vocals with an experienced vocal producer. Usually, three songs make the statement you need to say, and you want to make sure that it is representative of the artist's essence. If you're creating a “full” band, it's also important to decide if you have players you trust to play on your album, or if you want to trust the producer to hire the musicians from your studio. For example, a simple three-member rock band that records a 4-song demo for friends and family can expect to pay less than a 6-piece jazzy ensemble that records 18 songs to buy from record labels and sell them at their merchandise stand.
Maybe you're an experienced artist with some recording experience, and you're looking to take the next step in your career with a “master-quality” recording. This may sound pretty intuitive, but the main determinant of what you'll have to pay for a recording studio's services is exactly what you're looking for them to do. Send a text file with lyrics and an MP3 or WMA version of your songs with or without music in an email along with any instructions you have for your songs. And a state-of-the-art recording studio in Ames, Iowa, will probably cost less than any of those California locations.
And working in a professional recording studio and with a professional audio engineer can seem a little overwhelming, if not terribly expensive. You have expert musicians, professional demonstration singers, engineers and producers specializing in country, acoustic, modern country, folk, American and Christian music to record your music right here without having to travel to a studio. With DAW like Pro Tools or Ableton Live, it's literally possible to record an entire album on a laptop with a microphone and a bit of hardware. Going to a recording studio in Nashville and producing your project professionally can be a big investment.