Melodium

Melodium

Originally created in Paris by Charles Boutelleau and Émile Furn, Melodium became renowned for its distinctive French ribbon microphones, most notably the legendary 42B, produced from the late 1940s through the 1960s. After the Melodium name had remained dormant for decades, French analogue recording studio and equipment manufacturer Kerwax acquired the trademark and set about recreating the 42B for modern studios. The resulting Melodium 42Bnpreserves the character and imposing construction of the original while being designed and entirely hand-built in Brittany, France.

At the heart of the 42Bn is an exceptionally large 2.5µm pure-aluminium ribbon, surrounded by four AlNiCo 600 magnets in a closed magnetic circuit, together with an improved motor and custom-wound output transformer. Its figure-of-eight design retains the smooth, warm and organic character associated with the original 42B, while modern mechanical construction, higher output impedance and standard XLR connectivity make it considerably easier to integrate into contemporary recording systems.