"He sounded like I was talking to him in person, so I said, 'That's the microphone.'": Why Justin Timberlake's sound engineer has him singing through a low-budget classic vocal microphone on his latest tour

Justin Timberlake needs to sound great at every show and every song in his repertoire. Luckily, his tour crew has a special low-budget secret to ensure the star stays on track.

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

Taking a cue from the epic books of Taylor Swift (whose two-year Eras Tour recently ended) and Harry Styles (whose endless Love On Tour promoted two new albums over three years), Timberlake has been on tour since April 2024. This year, he won’t be until July be completed.

And while the outing is ostensibly an album promo, it is essentially a career showcase, featuring all the hits from his six-album catalog, showcasing his full range (both in terms of vocal range and musical direction). .

As such, Timberlake has to be great in every performance and in every song, and while one might assume that would require employing every trick 2025 has to offer, the technology that delivers his signature sound is refreshingly simple – unlike his amazing, flying video box understage that threatens to crush the audience (in the truest sense of the word) every evening…

Justin Timberlake Vancouver Tour 2024 – YouTube

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Behind the scenes and in front of the house, the magic comes from Montreal-based Solotech and engineer Jaymz Hardy-Martin III, and he took the time to step in Mix online about what makes the magic.

“I’m just there to bring the sound to life,” explains Hardy-Martin. “I don’t get involved in the mix. I just want what you have to sound great live in any environment. I always start simple and then add as needed.”

And as part of that “Start Simple” philosophy, Hardy-Martin’s picture of the vocal mic for such a superstar might surprise you.

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

“He sounded like I was talking to him in person, so I said, ‘That’s the microphone,'” Hardy-Martin recalls. “That makes it more personal for the fans because even though you’re in an arena with them with 20,000 people, you feel like you’re talking to them one on one.”

The Shure SM58 is perhaps the most popular microphone in the world: a dynamic microphone built robustly for use on the road with a consistent cardioid polar pattern that captures the full vocal range in high SPL environments while doing its best to capture the Leave background noise behind. Shure has been making (and carefully refining) 58s for 59 years, and for around £110 you can join the legions of superstars who have relied on them (Justin Timberlake included).

Complementing this no-frills hardcore microphone is a surprisingly simple (if rather high-tech) EQ and effects setup.

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

Elsewhere, a Waves PSE is used on vocals to prevent feedback – important when flying the star over the audience and in front of the L-Acoustics PA – as well as plug-ins such as Manny Marroquin Distortion and Enigma Modulation.

And with Timberlake’s all-important vocals behind him, Hardy-Martin adds one last bit of magic throughout the mix. “My secret tip is the (Waves) L3 (multimaximizer plug-in) on my entire master bus,” he says. “Put it on the last output and depending on how hard you hit it, everything gets tighter, a little louder, a little more direct and clearer.”

With all this technology, Hardy-Martin and his team have one final visual indicator of whether his mix is hitting the mark – the fans in the cheap seats.

“I always look in the far corner,” he explains, “and when the person standing against the wall is dancing, I know it sounds good and feels good. Even if we went there when the room was empty, everything is still translated. When I see them moving, I always say to Hilario Gonzalez, my systems engineer, “We did a good job tonight!”

For more information about the tour and tickets, visit Justin Timberlake’s website.

“He sounded like I was talking to him in person, so I said, ‘That’s the microphone.'”: Why Justin Timberlake’s sound engineer has him singing through a low-budget classic vocal microphone on his latest tour

ByAmelia Journalton

By Amelia Journalton

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