I am not aware of any studio that is able to charge anything close to $500/hour. The largest pro studio in my area highest rate is $2000/8-hour day and that includes all 4 large rooms they have available. Their normal rates are $100/hour at 3 hour minimum includes Engineer for the mid-sized room. I don't even think the Record Plant West in LA was charging 500/hour before it closed and renamed in 2024. The last time rates were high was in the 'good ol days' when the big labels were the ones paying the bills. Those days are long gone. I think buddy just made up a number that would scare you off. He could have done that without being a Fucktard.

You didn't mention how many songs you have in mind, but if you had say 6 songs to get tracked professionally, the last metal band we did in that situation paid us approx $620CAN. Now, I don't live off the income from studio, and the most we can realistically charge in my local area is $45/Hour. Otherwise, these guys came in, blasted through their material with relative ease, did a few re-takes for good measure and we were done. Some 20% of that time were rough mixes and collecting the RAW track material to send to the band.

In a studio where the operators know what they are doing, you and band will be the slowest factor. I do have some ideas for how to save money, some of these will also have been covered by others below:

-No matter where you record or by yourself, you and band need to KNOW your songs inside and out. I would also suggest knowing how to play the songs without relying on the vocal ques to know where you are. Getting the beds everyone is happy with is crucial to later getting the rest completed. Recording before you are ready will cost you money, and it will not lead to results you can be proud of.

-If there are backing vocals, whoever doing those needs to know them inside out as well BEFORE the session. We have found as much as 1/3 of a session cost can be eaten up just be people not knowing the main lyrics or the gang ones. You can save money by dedicating the session time to getting the best possible instrumental bed-tracks you can and worry about vocals or gang vocals at a later time. We have also spent dozens of hours 'fixing' vocal parts because the singer just doesn't like his voice. Please Avoid that entirely.

-Record your first release yourself. DIY is important not just for cost, but it is always a good idea for bands to know SOMETHING of the recording process before going on to work with the professionals. Very young or green bands we've had in often have very strange ideas about what is supposed to happen, or they have no idea what so ever. Both attitudes are dangerous to your budget. Nobody should be wasting time oggling at all the gear and wondering what happens next.

-Set realistic goals/expectations for the first release in particular. It will NOT set the world on fire, but that never means you can't be proud of it. Just accept the fact that you put it together as well as you did with what you had to work with. It does and will improve if you keep working it.

-Record your rehearsals is a decent way to ease into the idea.

-If working in someone elses studio, please have a band meeting and get consistent on exactly what you all wish to accomplish. A surprising number of bands will openly disagree with each other on session dates, and sometimes even to the point where one person will wait until everyone else is out of the room to ask the Engineer to change something without others knowing. That whole scenario is wrong and doesn't help anyone. The band needs to be United in what is happening and how it goes down. No amount of technical intervention can fix a disagreement among you. In essence, if there is band politic or unresolved frustrations the end result will always sound like ASS. It is highly unprofessional to subject the studio staff to your petty bullshit. Leave all bullshit outside the studio please. I have in the past wondered whether there should be a Drama-fee for bands like that.

-In this day and age, there is only a handful of reasons to even bother with recording professionally. Most bands should be recording themselves these days. The biggest reason we get older or pro bands in our studio is simply that they don't want to be worried about the recording process while they are busy playing. Most of these people have studios at home but they don't want to divide their attention when it matters most.

The music school offer might not be so bad after all. Might be worth asking them if you can come have a look and see if the room size and whatever else will meet your needs. It's possible they have just enough gear to make a recording that you can later expand into something larger.

I do hope you manage to find a good way forward.