The most common question i get from potential clients!

It probably helps to quickly describe the recording process.

First, the musicians come in, get settled and warm up. Pianists usually want a few minutes with the piano to warm up and get used to the instrument. Vocalists, drummers and other instrumentalists want to get used to the acoustics of the room.

If the session is just solo piano, the mics will be set up, but depending on the number of musicians, there usually will be a small set up period, which usually happens while the musicians are warming up.

This means recording. Each mic gets its own "track," hence the name.  We communicate back and forth from the upstairs control room over headphones, but the musicians usually don't record with them on (groups sometimes do so they can hear each other better).

Typically, people record 3-4 takes per piece, rarely only one take but quite often even 5-6 takes or more.   Usually after a few takes, the musician(s) want to come up and listen. It helps to figure out that if you record 20 minutes of music, it also takes 20 minutes to listen to the takes (although you can choose to listen all the way through or not).

But just for the sake of easy math, if you record for 20 minutes, and listen all the way through, and record another 20 minutes, and listen, we are now up to an hour and 20 minutes, just for tracking.

It is important to realize that it is quite easy to do partial retakes that can be inserted, which can make the tracking process more efficient if you are comfortable with re-recording small sections. It is also usually quite easy to take various takes and combine them - essentially cutting and pasting just like in word processing.

Of course there is an "art" to good editing, such as picking editing points and seamless cross-fading, and it does take some time.   A very simple edit may only take a minute or two, a more difficult edit (for example taking one vocal note in a phrase to be inserted elsewhere, or trying to edit a piano section with a lot of overtones and pedal) may take 10 minutes.

The mixing process can be quite simple, such as simply balancing the volume of a singer with her pianist, or more complex; for example, going over individual phrases to ensure that the vocalist is always at the top of the mix and clearly heard. Multiple instruments such as drums, piano and bass will take more time.

Effects such as reverb or "echo" can be added to make the singer or trio sound like they are on a live stage. Compression may be applied to help bring up the volume while preventing a sharp sounding trumpet or drums from distorting on peaks. The amount of time spent on mixing is up to the client, but it's reasonable to account for some amount of mixing time, once the final editing is complete.

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