Upgrade priorities?

[keeverw]

Hello,
I have been a Reason user since 2.5, and I have switched back and forth to Reaper a couple of times, but keep coming back to Reason.
I am a musician, but my main use is to help my daughter record her music, she is a singer-songwriter.
And I have had a blast with that!


I have a Neat King Bee II LD-Condensor that I have had about a year that I use to get good vocals.
I had read a lot of reviews when I bought it and it seemed like great quality for the money.

But I live in a noisy house (three kids, three dogs and a cat), so it's hard to get a quiet place to record.
So what I normally do is our master closet it very large and has a ton of hanging clothes in it, so I run a pair of 50' XLR cables from my studio space to that closet (one cable for the mic and the other for headphones). And shut the door and we track her vocals like that.
I have had pretty good results doing that.

But when we are writing a song together and we get to the point where we have the structure of the song written (usually in block mode in Reason), I want to record a vocal scratch track, just so I have a reference to listen to when I'm building up the rest of the song, all the subtle parts in the background, and tweaking mistakes in the piano roll, etc.
What I have been using for this is just an SM58.
But the sound is very low-mid heavy and she is a soprano but it makes her voice sound much deeper.
Since I am only using this as a scratch vocal track and no intention of keeping it in the final mix, it doesn't really matter per se.
But it occurred to me, what if she just nails it on the scratch track and I want to keep that take. It would be nice if it were better quality.

My question is why does the track sound muddy? Is it the SM58 or my interface?

I am using a Mackie Big Knob Studio for my interface right now. I know it's not the best, but it's very convenient and inexpensive.
And even if I got another interface, I would still run it into the Mackie just for monitor and headphone routing.

I was thinking about upgrading to a Motu M2, I have had Motu stuff in the past (896HD, 828mkii, ultralitemk3) and always thought they sounded great.
I really wanted to find a used Ultralite MK3, but I'm worried they stopped updating drivers.

But alternatively I was thinking about getting a better handheld mic for doing scratch vocal tracks.
I was leaning toward an SM86. It's still a handheld mic, but it's more sensitive because it's a condenser, and possibly has more high end response.
I had looked at a beta SM87a also, but I heard that might be too much high end for what I need. Like too bright and trebly.

Which of those 2 upgrades do you think would get me closer to what I'm looking for?
Either one is about $200.

Or am I missing something, and my money might be spent better elsewhere?

I am not at all opposed to buying used gear either, if it means better quality for the money.

[PhillipOrdonez]

The interface would have negligible impact on the tonal balance of the recording, however the microphone does have a big impact on that. I can’t vouch for any, hopefully a singer will have better advice on that front

[keeverw]

The interface would have negligible impact on the tonal balance of the recording, however the microphone does have a big impact on that. I can’t vouch for any, hopefully a singer will have better advice on that front

Thank you!

[Jackjackdaw]

You will probably get a crisper sound out of the sm86 but will pick up more of the background noise you are trying to avoid with the sm58. Have you considered an sm57? they have a bit more top end and still dynamic.

[bitley]

I find SM58 great for vocals but it needs an eq curve with a bit of low end cutoff & a bit of treble sharpening. You can make the SM58 sound fantastic. Just don't hold / set the mic too close.