Since our last news update a lot has changed. I’ve been extremely busy with life and with music, and I’ve failed to keep up with these updates or the website. That’s all going to change now that some of the more demanding things are behind me for the moment. For those of you just joining us my name is Scott Ferguson, and Family Room Recordings is my record label started in 2017. It is the only electronic music record label I know of in Iowa, certainly the only one with vinyl records for sale. Regardless I’ve still received very little interest or support from the local DJs or Record Stores of Iowa which has been extremely discouraging and for a long time has removed my motivation for the upkeep of anything public facing. On top of all that I lost access to our Facebook page and lost my personal accounts tied to it, that was also very disheartening. So, I don’t really post much on social media anymore, I let the website go for a while, I haven’t been playing gigs for a while either. 

However, slowly and silently I have never stopped building and growing. In fact, things have been steadily progressing in quite an aggressive manner. How is that possible if I’m not doing any of the cliché public facing activities you see your DJ friends doing?

Well first of all we have been far more active as a record store in the last few years buying whole collections, selling thousands of fantastic new and used records. Chances are if you buy a lot of House or Techno records you have probably bought from me by now. If not, then you probably need to buy more records HERE.

Secondly I’ve been working off-and-on to prepare my website to sell digital music files as well as vinyl. I did hit a snag in that process recently, but I am still working on it. Once that’s up and running you’ll be able to download our music directly from us here so that will be nice. We plan to have our entire catalog available for download eventually and if there is interest we may also sell the music of others. 

Finally, and most importantly, we’ve purchased a record lathe. 

A record lathe is a machine whose purpose is to take an audio input, and carve it directly into a disc. Most record lathes operated by professional mastering studios cut into a 14” metal disc coated with lacquer. That disc then gets plated with metal, the metal plating is then removed and inserted into a press and that is how our first four records and all of our official releases will continue to be made. Our record lathe is different than this though. It takes an audio signal and cuts it directly onto vinyl similar to how one might record a song onto a cassette tape. Meaning you can make just one disc at a time, but you must sit there and listen to the music or program material as it goes onto the record in real time. This process is extremely technical and can be very difficult but is an art of its own which I am absolutely fascinated by. This device allows Family Room Recordings to offer the service of creating one-off lathe cut records also called “Dubplates”. 

The early results have been quite impressive. I have given several friends the opportunity to have me cut them a record and send it to them. The feedback I’ve received has been very good so far, with over half of them returning to do another already and offering to pay. This is an extremely good feeling for me because not only do I enjoy the process, but then I get to send these creations to people and know they and their friends and audiences will enjoy them many years into the future. Feels great to help people get their own music on vinyl, which is usually a lofty bucket list wish. This is what I was wanting to do with FRR since its inception, but without a high demand for our releases, if we can’t sell them fast to make room for more we can’t help as many people. However, now we can make one record at a time which is far less cost and space prohibitive. It feels really good knowing that I helped someone accomplish their dream, or at least saved them some money in doing it for less than they would have had to pay elsewhere. Soon I will make another news article describing the process in more detail and I’ve also wanted to make a video illustrating the quality of recording I can make for you. For now, I will just leave it here. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Stay tuned because there will be a lot happening this year. 

Scott Ferguson
CEO/Owner/Operator/Executive Producer

Family Room Recordings, LLC.
PO Box 1032
Ankeny, IA 50021