Unfortunately though, the effortless breakthroughs of magic are rare.  Usually it's a case of  grinding diligence finally overcoming madden- ing frustration and despair!  More like the saga of some player becoming  "an over- night sensation" after ten years of laboring in obscurity.

But electric guitar exists in both the tactile and auditory realms.   Meaning that there's the playing that you feel with your hands, and there's the playing you hear with your ears.  The feeling and the hearing are connected together in your brain.but they are separated in the physical world by your amp rig which transforms physical sensation  into sound through electronics. One thing we work on constantly is circuitry that makes your guitar seem easier to play.  A crucial element is the timing envelope of dynamic response: how explosive is the attack, how smooth and ringing is the decay. What are the time values for each. To be really good,  a recording preamp needs Touch Dynamics  even though they mostly originate in the interaction between the power amp and the speakers of a live rig, just the parts we're leaving out!  But a recording preamp that feels stiff and robs the artist's inspiration would be a failure even if it captured good sound quality.

So it occurred to me that since so much of the dynamic juice of a live rig comes from the interaction of  the speaker and the output transformer, our Recording Preamp should  have as its focus, something that duplicates that complex, dynamic bounce and harmonic roll-off.  (Remember, the load an 8 ohm speaker puts on an amplifier ranges from 3 to 25 ohms, depending on frequency,  with multiple dips and resonances across the spectrum.) And thus began the quest for the magic combination of inductors and transformers to breathe life into the Recording Pre. Not only the dynamic bounce but the roll-off. 

Guitar speakers themselves function as very sharp filters, rolling off frequencies above 4 or 5 kilohertz, unlike monitors with tweeters that extend to 20k or more. But the roll-off of a guitar speaker is, again, not a simple linear function. It's those peaks, dips and resonances once again, where true tone lives.

 But what most other direct recording circuits do, is simply roll-off those higher frequencies.  But they do so in that linear, predictable way, that lacks the character of "the real thing". Usually they arrive at a compromise of roll-off that sounds both buzzy, because some too-high frequencies remain, yet simultaneously sounds veiled because the presence peak (just below the unwanted high-frequencies) has been partially rolled off.

The way I explained it in the Patent  was something like this:  In a recording or playback system, every element functions in a linear, known fashion. The goal is total predictability so you get out exactly what you put in. But in every element of a guitar system, the opposite is true. First, you want the power amp and the preamp to distort, albeit in a musical way. (There are no engineering specs for that.) You want some bizarre frequency response that sounds huge, meaty, menacing and "right". You want a cabinet that resonates, a speaker that rolls-off, a power amp that compresses,  a preamp that grinds. None of  which is linear or predictable. And when you add all these variables together, their performance would defy scientific analysis. But who cares.as long as it's got tone and soul .

So, the Formula starts with an all-tube preamp of multiple dimensions: the best clean channel we've yet developed plus an alternate, gainier "Pushed" mode. Either one allows a complete and continuous sweep of gain from pristine to howling with no dead spots along the route. Add to that, two "High Gain" modes, each of which is also spectral in its sweep from clean at the low end to spastic at max.  Lead 1 is fat, brown and vintage, Lead 2 is skinny, cutting and more modern. .

Several sonic elements were needed in the recording circuitry to duplicate the sound and feel of the missing power amp, cabinet and speakers.  First, a low frequency boost was added to simulate the resonance of a big cabinet, but with a sub-sonic roll-off to prevent bloatiness.  A circuit was added for attack emphasis to simulate the punch and cut of a great Celestion (like our Custom 90).  A mid range dip for fatness and of course the all important high-frequency roll-off, which occurs incrementally at multiple places in the circuit.

But the real magic of the Formula Recording circuit is in the complex interaction between a fixed, toroidal inductor and the recording circuit's output transformer. None of us, including the transformer engineers, can figure out exactly what's happening.but who cares? The fact is, it DOES work and in a magical way that rolls off the highs -but manages to sound bright and open at the same time. It doesn't just roll them off in the normal, linear fashion. Rather there are peaks and bumps where some harmonics cancel and others resonate while the sound energy bounces back and forth repeatedly between voltage and magnetism. Just like it does in the complex interaction between the voice coil of the speaker and the windings of the output transformer inside a power amp.which are also two electro-magnetic devices connected together.

Two separate modes of recording performance are available by merely flicking a switch. The one with highly reactive characteristics is tailored for high-gain distortion performance and an alternate, less reactive mode is voiced for sparkling clean sounds.

Does it really compare to the best miced-up live sounds? All I can report is, although it's a brand new product,  we have already heard player's say it sounded better -and felt way better- than they expected. And when they compared it directly to their actual miced-up sound, they preferred the Formula's Direct Recording.

There's no question that the circuit is a breakthrough for home recording artists  and small studios. Whether it replaces big time, big studio live recording is probably doubtful but in some instances we may be surprised. But there is no doubt that this product should greatly enhance -if not revolutionize-the way guitarists approach tracking.

It may sound like a bit of a cliché, but these Formula Products rule the world of toneful value.  They are stripped down yet totally refined at the same time. Awesome performance live or in the studio, priced around a grand more or less.

And the name Formula?  Two meanings:  A tribute to the magic blend of tone and function and to the no-compromise, purpose-built approach to design and performance. Like my personal favorite of vintage rides, the tube-frame BT-29 Formula Atlantic*, these new amplifiers offer a comfortable high-performance platform that lets you take it as far as you dare.