J. Cole

"I also record myself into Logic, using a small Neumann microphone, the Neumann TLM103, and an Apogee Duet or Presonus Firestudio interface to create demos of my vocal hooks."

Have you found a preferred signal chain?

Cole: I kind of freestyle every time. The Avalon [VT-737sp tube microphone/instrument preamplifier] is great, but sometimes I don’t have that and just have the Duet so that will do. And for the mic, the [Neumann] U87 is usually what we use. There’s also a Sony mic, the C800G, that’s great.

"I also record myself into Logic, using[...] an Apogee Duet or Presonus Firestudio interface to create demos of my vocal hooks."

J. Cole can be seen using Battery 4 at the very start of the video.

At the 20:58 mark during the Revenge of the Dreamers session, J. Cole is seen in the studio on the Sony 800.

At 4:34 you can see him playing with a vst on logic pro 40mins before his performance

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as mentioned by producer Maddmix in this March 2019 Sound on Sound article. The settings for "Leads" can be found here.

"The session was originally a 21 Savage track, and they later decided to add J Cole. His engineer sent me J Cole's vocal session with reverbs and delays already set, so I pretty much imported his vocal auxes, and just matched that to the mix that I had already going. However, the inserts are all mine, and similar to what I used on 21. There also are four Pro-Q2s here, plus two instances of the C6 multiband, and the Clariphonic EQ. The 'Slap' is a send to one of my aux effect tracks, just with a 30-millisecond EchoBoy delay, to widen the vocals a bit. I stripped all the other sends down, to match J Cole's vocals with a track that was more on the dry side, and actually disabled all the sends apart from the 'Slap' on the J Cole aux group track, 'Leads'. Finally, both '21 Leads' and 'Leads' go to the 'Lead All' [40] and parallel 'MadVoxComp' [41] tracks, and the latter has the Waves CLA-76 and L1, both for more presence and volume."

"My favourite monitor speakers are the M-Audio BX8s. I love them and often take them with me."

In this article J Cole says he used to use an ASR-X Pro

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as mentioned by producer Maddmix in this March 2019 Sound on Sound article. The settings for "Leads" can be found here.

Maddox uses Waves' C6 multiband dynamics processor to tame troublesome resonances, as here in J Cole's vocal.

"The session was originally a 21 Savage track, and they later decided to add J Cole. His engineer sent me J Cole's vocal session with reverbs and delays already set, so I pretty much imported his vocal auxes, and just matched that to the mix that I had already going. However, the inserts are all mine, and similar to what I used on 21. There also are four Pro-Q2s here, plus two instances of the C6 multiband, and the Clariphonic EQ. The 'Slap' is a send to one of my aux effect tracks, just with a 30-millisecond EchoBoy delay, to widen the vocals a bit. I stripped all the other sends down, to match J Cole's vocals with a track that was more on the dry side, and actually disabled all the sends apart from the 'Slap' on the J Cole aux group track, 'Leads'. Finally, both '21 Leads' and 'Leads' go to the 'Lead All' [40] and parallel 'MadVoxComp' [41] tracks, and the latter has the Waves CLA-76 and L1, both for more presence and volume."

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as mentioned by producer Maddmix in this March 2019 Sound on Sound article.

"The session was originally a 21 Savage track, and they later decided to add J Cole. His engineer sent me J Cole's vocal session with reverbs and delays already set, so I pretty much imported his vocal auxes, and just matched that to the mix that I had already going. However, the inserts are all mine, and similar to what I used on 21. There also are four Pro-Q2s here, plus two instances of the C6 multiband, and the Clariphonic EQ. The 'Slap' is a send to one of my aux effect tracks, just with a 30-millisecond EchoBoy delay, to widen the vocals a bit. I stripped all the other sends down, to match J Cole's vocals with a track that was more on the dry side, and actually disabled all the sends apart from the 'Slap' on the J Cole aux group track, 'Leads'. Finally, both '21 Leads' and 'Leads' go to the 'Lead All' [40] and parallel 'MadVoxComp' [41] tracks, and the latter has the Waves CLA-76 and L1, both for more presence and volume."

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as mentioned by producer Maddmix in this March 2019 Sound on Sound article.

"The session was originally a 21 Savage track, and they later decided to add J Cole. His engineer sent me J Cole's vocal session with reverbs and delays already set, so I pretty much imported his vocal auxes, and just matched that to the mix that I had already going. However, the inserts are all mine, and similar to what I used on 21. There also are four Pro-Q2s here, plus two instances of the C6 multiband, and the Clariphonic EQ. The 'Slap' is a send to one of my aux effect tracks, just with a 30-millisecond EchoBoy delay, to widen the vocals a bit. I stripped all the other sends down, to match J Cole's vocals with a track that was more on the dry side, and actually disabled all the sends apart from the 'Slap' on the J Cole aux group track, 'Leads'. Finally, both '21 Leads' and 'Leads' go to the 'Lead All' [40] and parallel 'MadVoxComp' [41] tracks, and the latter has the Waves CLA-76 and L1, both for more presence and volume."

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as is visible in the aux "All Vox" in a downloadable photo of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file) from this March 2019 Sound on Sound interview with producer Maddmix.

"'All Vox' has the Avid Lo-Fi and Waves RCompressor. I take the Sample Size down to 15 [bits] with the Lo-Fi, which is a trick I learned from Jaycen. It works like a form of compression, and makes the vocals a bit more up-front and louder. The RCompressor is set to a ratio of 2.56 and is there to keep the vocals in place. 'All Drums' has the Acustica Diamond, in a special edition made for Dave Pensado. I felt that the drums needed a little more 100Hz, so I boosted with that plug-in. I like the way it works on the low end. I also used the Lo-Fi on here, on the same 15-bit Sample Size setting as with the vocals."

J. Cole can be seen using the M-Audio Keystation 49es MIDI Controller in a video titled "J. Cole Making Beat On His Tour Bus," uploaded by Stevan on YouTube.

"I also record myself into Logic, using[... a] Presonus Firestudio interface to create demos of my vocal hooks.”

J cole can be seen wearing them as he records at 17:16

In this interview with eMusician, J.Cole says, "I’ve used Yamaha NS10, Mackie HR824, and M-Audio BX8 monitors outside of the commercial studios."

Can be seen holding it in his hand at 17:16

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as mentioned by producer Maddmix in this March 2019 Sound on Sound article.

"The session was originally a 21 Savage track, and they later decided to add J Cole. His engineer sent me J Cole's vocal session with reverbs and delays already set, so I pretty much imported his vocal auxes, and just matched that to the mix that I had already going. However, the inserts are all mine, and similar to what I used on 21. There also are four Pro-Q2s here, plus two instances of the C6 multiband, and the Clariphonic EQ. The 'Slap' is a send to one of my aux effect tracks, just with a 30-millisecond EchoBoy delay, to widen the vocals a bit. I stripped all the other sends down, to match J Cole's vocals with a track that was more on the dry side, and actually disabled all the sends apart from the 'Slap' on the J Cole aux group track, 'Leads'. Finally, both '21 Leads' and 'Leads' go to the 'Lead All' [40] and parallel 'MadVoxComp' [41] tracks, and the latter has the Waves CLA-76 and L1, both for more presence and volume."

A downloadable picture of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file) shows that it is the L1 Limiter, rather than the L1 Ultramaximizer.

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as mentioned by producer Maddmix in this March 2019 Sound on Sound article and visible in a downloadable photo of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file).

Of the '21 Lead' aux, Maddox says: "There are four instances of the Pro-Q2 on the signal chain, which is again an example of me working cumulatively. I now use the Pro-Q3 a lot, which is a dynamic EQ, which can do pretty much the same thing as the C6. Then insert 4 is the McDSP MC404 multiband compressor, which I use pretty often, and then I have the Eiosis Air EQ, the C6, the Kush Clariphonic EQ and the SSL G EQ.

(...) "The session was originally a 21 Savage track, and they later decided to add J Cole. His engineer sent me J Cole's vocal session with reverbs and delays already set, so I pretty much imported his vocal auxes, and just matched that to the mix that I had already going. However, the inserts are all mine, and similar to what I used on 21. There also are four Pro-Q2s here, plus two instances of the C6 multiband, and the Clariphonic EQ. The 'Slap' is a send to one of my aux effect tracks, just with a 30-millisecond EchoBoy delay, to widen the vocals a bit. I stripped all the other sends down, to match J Cole's vocals with a track that was more on the dry side, and actually disabled all the sends apart from the 'Slap' on the J Cole aux group track, 'Leads'. Finally, both '21 Leads' and 'Leads' go to the 'Lead All' [40] and parallel 'MadVoxComp' [41] tracks, and the latter has the Waves CLA-76 and L1, both for more presence and volume."

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as is visible in track "CILdVrDIRTY" in a downloadable photo of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file) from this March 2019 Sound on Sound interview with producer Maddmix.

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as is visible in the aux "All Vox" in a downloadable photo of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file) from this March 2019 Sound on Sound interview with producer Maddmix.

"'All Vox' has the Avid Lo-Fi and Waves RCompressor. I take the Sample Size down to 15 [bits] with the Lo-Fi, which is a trick I learned from Jaycen. It works like a form of compression, and makes the vocals a bit more up-front and louder. The RCompressor is set to a ratio of 2.56 and is there to keep the vocals in place. 'All Drums' has the Acustica Diamond, in a special edition made for Dave Pensado. I felt that the drums needed a little more 100Hz, so I boosted with that plug-in. I like the way it works on the low end. I also used the Lo-Fi on here, on the same 15-bit Sample Size setting as with the vocals."

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as is visible in track "CILdVrDIRTY" in a downloadable photo of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file) from this March 2019 Sound on Sound interview with producer Maddmix.

Used for J. Cole's backing vocals on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as is visible in track "Cole BV" in a downloadable photo of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file) from this March 2019 Sound on Sound interview with producer Maddmix.

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as mentioned by producer Maddmix in this March 2019 Sound on Sound article.

"The session was originally a 21 Savage track, and they later decided to add J Cole. His engineer sent me J Cole's vocal session with reverbs and delays already set, so I pretty much imported his vocal auxes, and just matched that to the mix that I had already going. However, the inserts are all mine, and similar to what I used on 21. There also are four Pro-Q2s here, plus two instances of the C6 multiband, and the Clariphonic EQ. The 'Slap' is a send to one of my aux effect tracks, just with a 30-millisecond EchoBoy delay, to widen the vocals a bit. I stripped all the other sends down, to match J Cole's vocals with a track that was more on the dry side, and actually disabled all the sends apart from the 'Slap' on the J Cole aux group track, 'Leads'. Finally, both '21 Leads' and 'Leads' go to the 'Lead All' [40] and parallel 'MadVoxComp' [41] tracks, and the latter has the Waves CLA-76 and L1, both for more presence and volume."

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as is visible in track "CILdVrDIRTY" in a downloadable photo of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file) from this March 2019 Sound on Sound interview with producer Maddmix.

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as is visible in track "CILdVrDIRTY" in a downloadable photo of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file) from this March 2019 Sound on Sound interview with producer Maddmix.

Used for J. Cole's feature on 21 Savage's "A Lot", as is visible in the aux automation track "ALL VOX.dup2" in a downloadable photo of the "A Lot" Pro Tools session (available in this .zip file) from this March 2019 Sound on Sound interview with producer Maddmix.

All these tracks go the '21 Lead' aux (42), which has nine plug-ins, including compressors, de-essers, and four(!) more instances of Pro-Q2, as well as four sends. Both 21 Savage and J Cole's aux group vocal tracks then go to a vocal aux called 'MadVoxComp', and from there to the 'All Vocals' aux, each of which hosts two plug-ins; so in total, every 21 Savage vocal track passes through 19 to 21 insert plug-ins, as well as being sent to up to seven auxes. The situation with J Cole is even more elaborate, though complicated by the fact that some of the sends came with the vocal session that Maddox received from Cole's engineer.

He mentions using them in the video link as well as in interviews

The majority of Revenge [of the Dreamers 3] was mixed on my headphones. The majority of J.I.D.'s Dicaprio 2 was mixed on my headphones. I was actually on K.O.D. tour with Cole while I was mixing J.I.D.'s album. The headphones were the Audeze LCD-X. Then, I use this program called Sonarworks, which EQs the headphones. Those headphones have the best bass response I've heard."