“He sounded like when I talk to him in person, so I said, ‘Well, that’s the mic'": Why Justin Timberlake's engineer has him singing through a classic low-budget vocal mic on his latest tour

Justin Timberlake
(Image credit: Manny Carabel/Getty Images for Audacy)

Justin Timberlake needs to sound great at every show, through every song in his repertoire. Fortunately, his tour crew have a special, low-budget secret on hand to ensure that the star remains permanently on point.

Timberlake is currently back in the States as the Forget Tomorrow tour (promoting his current album Everything I Thought It Was, released in March 2024) returns to the USA for a second leg as part of its ever extended global run.

Taking a leaf out of the epic books of Taylor Swift (whose two-year Eras Tour only recently ended) and Harry Styles (whose endless Love On Tour wound up promoting two new albums across three years) Timberlake has been on tour since April 2024 and won’t conclude until July this year.

And while the jaunt is ostensibly an album promo, it’s essentially a career showcase, with all the hits from his six-album catalogue, showing his full range (both in terms of vocal highs and musical directions).

As such, Timberlake needs to be great at every gig and through every song, and while you might assume that this would involve the use of every bit of trickery that 2025 can offer, the technology that delivers his trademark sound is refreshingly simple – unlike his amazing, flying, video box sub-stage that threatens to crush audiences (literally) every night…

Justin Timberlake Vancouver Tour 2024 - YouTube Justin Timberlake Vancouver Tour 2024 - YouTube
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Behind the scenes and front of house, the magic comes from Montreal-based Solotech and engineer Jaymz Hardy-Martin III, and he took the time to fill in Mix Online on what’s making the magic.

“I’m there just to make the sound come to life,” Hardy-Martin explains. “I don’t put myself on the mix; I just want to make what you have sound great live in any environment. I always start simple and then add only as needed.”

And as part of this ‘start simple’ philosophy, Hardy-Martin’s pic of vocal mic for such a superstar may surprise you.

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The choice arose when, during rehearsals for the tour, Timberlake borrowed his choreographer’s Shure 58 to speak to the in-house crew.

“He sounded like when I talk to him in person, so I said, ‘Well, that’s the mic,'" remembers Hardy-Martin. "That makes it more personal for the fans, because even though you’re in an arena with 20,000 people, you feel like you’re talking to him one-on-one."

The Shure SM58 is perhaps the most popular microphone in the world: a dynamic mic ruggedly built for the road with a uniform cardioid polar pattern designed to capture a full vocal range in high noise pressure environments while doing its best to leave the background blast behind. Shure has been making (and delicately refining) 58s for 59 years, and you can join the legions of superstars who’ve relied on them (Justin Timberlake included) for around £110…

Supplementing this hardcore, no-nonsense mic is a surprisingly simple (albeit rather more hi-tech) EQ and effects line-up.

“I have the Waves F6 [EQ] on Justin, because he has a huge range, from falsetto on Cry Me A River to low register on No Angels,” explains Hardy-Martin. “ I can’t EQ that from song to song, but just F6 and a little bit of compression on him, and the 58 is perfect.”

Elsewhere, a Waves PSE is used on the vocal to prevent feedback – essential when the star is being flown out above the audience and in front of the L-Acoustics PA – along with plug-ins such as Manny Marroquin Distortion and Enigma Modulation.

And with Timberlake’s all-important vocals in the bag, Hardy-Martin uses one final bit of magic across the entire mix. “My secret sauce is the [Waves] L3 [Multimaximizer plug-in] on my overall master bus,” he says. “Put it on that last output and depending how hard you hit it, it brings everything in tighter, a little louder, a little more in your face and clearer.”

With all this tech at his fingers Hardy-Martin and team have one final visual indicator as to whether his mix is hitting the spot - the fans in the cheap seats.

“I’m always looking in the back corner,” he explains, “and if that person standing against the wall is dancing, I know it sounds and feels good. Even though we walked up there when the room was empty, everything is still translating, so when I see them moving, I always tell Hilario Gonzalez, my system engineer, ‘We did a good job tonight!”

You can find out more about the tour and get tickets via Justin Timberlake's website.

Daniel Griffiths

Daniel Griffiths is a veteran journalist who has worked on some of the biggest entertainment, tech and home brands in the world. He's interviewed countless big names, and covered countless new releases in the fields of music, videogames, movies, tech, gadgets, home improvement, self build, interiors and garden design. He’s the ex-Editor of Future Music and ex-Group Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Musician, Guitarist, Guitar World, Computer Music and more. He renovates property and writes for MusicRadar.com.