Direct-in guitar stuttering

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So I recorded this song and though it sounds okay I want to record a second track of guitars direct-in and see if I can use some amp sims to fill out the mic'd guitar track, as it's admittedly a little thin-sounding. I run a delta 1010lt, which has RCA ins/outs, XLR, and S/PDIF. I went down to good old GC and told the guy I wanted to direct record my guitar though the RCA ins on the 1010lt, and he directed me to a couple adapters, one being a stereo 1/4" (male) to RCA (male) with a long cable, and the other being 1/4" (female) to RCA (male) with a teeny cable. He suggested the 1st one, so I picked it up.

However, now that I'm trying it out, I get this awful stuttering when I try to record direct, and I'm not sure what's causing it or how to fix it. At first I thought it could be the new drivers I just installed (xx.4x), but recording with my mic though xlr sounds just fine. I tried using both the left and right ends of the cable but both produce the same awfulness. I'm guessing now that the cable is either bad, or more likely that it's not the right kind of cable to be plugging into a guitar. (Hosa brand, CPR-203 dual cable 3M, RCA plugs to 1/4" phone plugs)

I'm sure I'm gonna get told how dumb I am but this is new to me, I've always just mic'd the amp and let 'er fly. Anyways, help appreciated as always.
 
The guy at GC really missed the boat on this one. He could have sold you a DI box.

You need a matching transformer to record guitars direct into a line in, or what is called a Direct-Injection, or DI. The output impedence from guitar pickups are way too high for a line in on a soundcard to deal with. You need either a preamp to raise the guitar signal to line level, or a DI box to match the output of the guitar to the input of the soundcard.
 
Thanks, c7sus, I should know better than to listen to GC guys for technical advice by now, but oh well. Question though, seems like there are a lot of people who record direct-in to their, say, SB Live with a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter without problems (besides the direct dry signal obviously sounding like crap), so what's the difference between that and what I'm trying to pull off here?
 
They may record keyboards or a drum machine or something like that through an SBLive line in, but they ain't recording electric guitars straight into an SBLive.

When you say "stuttering", exactly what do you mean? Because "stuttering" brings to mind dropouts, and that doesn't sound like that's the issue here.
 
...seems like there are a lot of people who record direct-in to their, say, SB Live with a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter without problems (besides the direct dry signal obviously sounding like crap), so what's the difference between that and what I'm trying to pull off here?
Click to expand...

Well, direct in means a line level signal from a effects box or amp modeler or preamp or mixer -- not straight from a guitar.

Some people plug their guitars into the SB Live's Mic In and get a sound out of it. But no one can plug an ordinary guitar cable straight from a guitar into the Line In of an SB Live -- or the Line In of anything -- and get a workable signal out of it.
 
I see, I was confusing the mic in with the line in on the sound blaster method. Thanks.

And by stuttering I mean I get a decent signal when I record it but there's a lot of popping along with it. I guess 'popping' would be a better term for it.
 
c7sus said:
You need either a preamp to raise the guitar signal to line level, or a DI box to match the output of the guitar to the input of the soundcard.
Click to expand...

A DI only changes the instrument signal to mic signal. A DI is so you can run an instrument through a mic preamp not line level inputs.

Get a DI and go from there. You may have other issues but first things first.
 
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