Claymore, it sounds like you are dealing with a much fancier system than I have. It also sounds like you are dealing with the entire sound system. In my case, the amp and mixer are mine, but I might never have worked with the musicians before, and my problem starts when they give me their 1/4" plugs. I want to have equipment handy so that I'll be able to put them into my mixer, then balance them in the mixer and have one volume control for the entire band. (I'm a dance caller, providing the sound system for a dance I'm calling.)

I now have some adapters from 1/4" female phone plug to male XLR. They were cheap, and they don't add any additional length of unbalanced line, but do they do an adequate job?