When we switched to formula with my son (reguardless of what kind it was) our son had HORRIBLE smelly gas and bms. Are you comparing the smell to breast milk vs the liquid formula? With our son we only used the powder stuff, my guess is it would smell about the same as the liquid stuff.
I have tried the liquid formula and yes, my daughter spit it up a lot. I thought it would make a difference with the spit ups but it didn't so I stopped using it. I do both, breast and formula and yes, the diapers are stinky. I have noticed now that she is latching and feeding off the breast that she doesn't spit up a lot like she use to. Now it's not forceful spit ups like before.
What I remember from my first is that formula feed babies not matter if its liquid or powder have stinkier diapers. I'm not sure about the spit up though since my daughters was white...