Peavey MSDI

The front-mounted connectors and controls are few and simple. On the left, arranged in a vertical line, sit a pair of jack sockets. The Input jack receives the output of your amplifier and the Output jack should be connected to either a suitable loudspeaker or to a dummy load. The MSDI’s three controls lie in a more or less central, vertical line. The top slider switch selects between three possible voicings; Hi Cut, Reference and Hi Boost. Below that is the rotary Output Level attenuator (with a range from 0dB to -dB), with the -15dB point on the scale being marked as the Reference Level. Below that you’ll find the push-button Ground Lift switch. To the extreme right, on a level between the last two controls, is the Microphone Simulated Output’s transformer-balanced XLR. Other than the four rubber feet on the bottom and the few screws that hold the unit together, that’s it for features on this product.

No speaker emulator, to my ears, has ever got the sound totally accurate and the MSDI is no exception to that rule. However, the three tonal choices that form part of passive emulation circuit give the MSDI a more than fighting chance of producing a very good, if not entirely authentic sound. For the Strat/Deluxe combination I found that the Hi Cut position gave me the most subjectively similar results to the original, with the Reference position being slightly too bright to my ears. The Hi Boost just didn’t work for me with the Strat and Deluxe. Mind you, if I had been using a brighter speaker instead of the Deluxe’s ageing original 12-inch, it could well have been a somewhat different story.

Plugging the MSDI into a (non-Peavey), powered, plastic PA speaker gave the same subjective results and I’d have been happy to gig with the Hi Cut switch engaged. In both recording and PA setups I found that the setting of the Output Level made no discernable difference to the character of the sound, although Peavey do advise that, if you’re using the MSDI with high-powered amplifiers and are therefore having to turn the output level down, you’ll find that the bass end of your sound will be enhanced. Since my Deluxe’s 22 Watts hardly count as high-power this wasn’t an issue for me, however I did find that I heard its every crackle and pop with extreme clarity through the MSDI. Turning down the Output Level slightly solved most of the problem, but the real solution is going to be a trip to my amp tech for an overhaul.