Scholz reinvented rock-processing
equipment
By Larry Lange
Though the creative
force behind the rock group Boston, Tom Scholz had an engineering problem.
Because of the limitations of mid-1970s guitar-processing equipment, he couldn't
quite get the majestic rock music sound swirling around in his head to translate
easily to tape.
In order to get the distorted, overdriven power-rock sound
out of a guitar amplifier, technicians were saddled with recording
then-state-of-the-art tube amps at maximum volume to achieve the desired "heavy"
effect. Scholz found that technique to be less than elegant, so in true
engineering form, he addressed the problem with an ingenious end-around.
Placing a series of resistors between the output of a high-level (100-W)
tube amp and a speaker cabinet, Scholz found a way to "soak up" an amp's output
— though it could still be pinned at maximum volume, for full distortion effect.
He had created what he called the Power Soak.
The first crack
Early versions of the Power Soak had settable input and output
impedances and a rotary knob on the front that allowed a player to dial the
volume down. Though the amplifier could crank out at 100 W, a player could
actually plug headphones into the amp and play at a comfortable level. Scholz's
company, SR&D, released the invention publicly in 1980.
For his next
invention, the Rockman headphone amp, Scholz simplified the process. He used
solid-state technology to literally emulate the tube-amp sound previously found
only in vintage analog circuitry, and packed it in a box the size of a sandwich.
Along the way, he added other features to the Rockman line — such as
equalization and "chorusing" (or doubling), echo and filtering — to the already
incorporated distortion feature.
Reaching maturity
Later,
Scholz's solid-state line matured into the Rockman XPL units, which incorporated
MIDI switching and were preprogrammed. The settings were stored on E 2 PROMs and
could be immediately retrieved when a guitarist stomped on a MIDI controller
pedal (foot switch).
By 1982, dozens of other artists had released albums
using the SR&D Rockman guitar processors that Scholz had invented, and his
technology had changed the recording process forever, while also inspiring the
"arena rock" sound.
Tom
Scholz
The man responsible for it
all