Meyer Sound Mourns Friend, Music Engineer Roger Nichols

An audio industry pioneer, Roger Nichols played an instrumental role in a Meyer Sound milestone when he inspired the company to develop the HD-1 reference loudspeaker into a near-field monitoring system for recording studios and live mixing environments. Nichols was the first engineer to use HD-1 monitors for a recording—Flying Cowboys by Rickie Lee Jones. Other artists who worked with Nichols include Placido Domingo, Roseanne Cash, Frank Sinatra and The Beach Boys.

“It takes a visionary like Roger to steer change and break new grounds in technology,” says John Meyer, CEO and cofounder of Meyer Sound. “He raised the important question about whether loudspeakers should play a neutral role in the audio chain and this opened up the path for reinforcement systems to be built for transparency and linearity. He was a talented individual who took a relentless scientific approach to improving sound.”

The HD-1 monitor was initially engineered to be an in-house test source for evaluating microphones for the SIM® audioanalyzer. At Roger Nichols’s request to use these reference loudspeakers for his studio recording work, Meyer Sound introduced the HD-1 product, which became a staple in many audio engineers’ toolbox. In honor of his contribution, in 1990, Nichols was given the first and second official HD-1 systems ever built with serial numbers one and two.

To donate to Roger Nichols’s family, visit: http://www.rogernichols.com/