Introduction to Arena Usage Features

1. Connect G3

Open Arena and connect G3 to your computer using a USB-C cable. If G3 successfully connects, the top of the home page will display a green dot, if connecting failed, a red dot will show.

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2. G3 Settings

2.1 G3 setting page

Click Options on the homepage and select G3 Settings to enter the settings page. In the settings page, you can set the G3's audio input light color, mix mode light color ，Noise reduction options and mute button light color according to your own habits. After the settings are completed, the encoder's function and light color will be synchronized to the G3 device, so that you can control the volume and sound effects of the live Streaming through the G3 device.

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Additionally, on the SoundPad panel, Pad 1 and Pad 2 are used to turn Noise Reduction and Monitoring on/off, respectively. You can customize the lighting effect for these two keys when they are in the "Off" state.

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● Reset

A confirmation pop-up will appear when you click the "Reset" button. Once confirmed, the G3 device's configuration and LED lighting will revert to their initial default values.

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● G3 Device illustration

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2.2 Setup mixer to PC-2

When the G3 is connected to the computer via USB, you can use the Stream and Chat mixing functions within Maono Arena to meet your audio mixing needs for live streaming and chatting.

Additionally, the back of the G3 audio interface features an PC-2 port for connecting to a smartphone or another computer to output audio simultaneously.

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How to send streams to PC-2?

When selecting Monitor Output, you will see an unlit PC-2 button. Click this button to light it up, and the current audio mix will be sent to the PC-2 output port on the back of the audio interface. You can choose any one of the three mixes—Stream, Chat, or Headphones—to be sent to the PC-2 output.

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2.3 Noise Reduction and Monitoring Controls

The G3 provides a physical soft-touch button that allows you to turn on/off the AI Noise Reduction. This feature is specifically optimized for gaming and live streaming scenarios, effectively reducing ambient noise, fan sounds, and keyboard clicks. You can also turn on/off the noise reduction effect using the "Noise Reduction" option within the G3 settings in the software.

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2.3.1 How to use AI Noise Reduction

By default, AI Noise Reduction is enabled. The Pad button displays the AI Noise Reduction icon. Pressing the Pad button turns the AI Noise Reduction on or off.

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2.3.2 How to use DSP Reduction

When you change the noise reduction on the G3 settings panel, the noise reduction control button on the Arena sound panel will automatically change to the DSP Noise Reduction icon. DSP Noise Reduction has two levels of adjustment, allowing you to switch between Off, Light and Deep reduction. When switching, the color of the Pad will change accordingly, allowing the user to see which noise reduction mode is currently active.

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Using the Noise Reduction and Monitor Buttons on the G3

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3. Physical Input Channels

3.1 Channel Configuration

Upon connecting the G3, you will see that the first and second channels on the panel are the XLR and PC-2 physical input channels, respectively. These correspond to the XLR microphone connected to the G3 and the downstream input from your computer or mobile device. For channels that do not require control or are currently not in use, you can customize the panel's display via the settings menu.

3.2 Linked Fader Control

The G3 panel features four faders, each corresponding to the first four input channels in the Arena software. By default, the physical input channels are positioned first. You can rearrange the channel order by dragging them, allowing for more intuitive control during operation. Please note the following synchronization behavior:

● Adjust a fader on the G3 panel

When you adjust a fader on the G3 panel, the corresponding fader in the Arena software will move synchronously. The volume level displayed in Arena will match the reading on the G3's meter.

● Adjust a fader in the Arena software

When you adjust a fader in the Arena software, the meter on the G3 panel will update accordingly. You may notice that the physical fader's position on the G3 no longer matches its own meter reading. We have implemented an optimization for this state. If the physical fader position is above or below the current meter scale, moving the fader up or down to align with the meter's scale will automatically re-link them. The channel's volume will not audibly jump or change during this re-linking process.

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4. Mix Mode Switching

At the top of the G3 panel, there is a Mode button for quickly switching the current mix mode. It cycles through the three submixes: Stream, Chat, and Monitor.

When switching modes, the indicator light for the corresponding mode will illuminate. Simultaneously, within the Arena software interface, the three submix channels for Stream, Chat, and Monitor will be updated in sync.

Conversely, when you switch the submix within the Arena software, the indicator light status on the G3 will change synchronously.

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5. Connect the microphone

Open Arena and connect your microphone to the computer via a USB-C cable. Upon successful connection, the lower right corner will pop up a prompt window, the microphone's channel will be displayed on the home page.

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When the microphone is not connected, a pop-up notification will appear on the Arena home page. This pop-up will remain visible until it is manually closed or until a microphone is connected.

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6. Mute on G3 devices

● Press the mute button on the G3 device.

● Push a channel‘s fader all the way down until its input indicator light turns off, thereby muting the channel.

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7. Setting up the microphone

Once Arena detects a Maono microphone(Currently supported microphone devices: PD200X, PD400X, DM30, DM30(RGB), PD100X, PM450, DM50), it will automatically create a corresponding hardware virtual channel on the home page. You can conveniently adjust the volume within this channel's interface. Clicking the microphone icon in the interface allows you to modify the microphone's relevant parameters.

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8. Monitor Settings

8.1 Monitor Output

Arena offers three modes: Stream, Headphone and Chat. The volume level of the three channels inside the monitor output controls the total volume of the output of the three modes. Which monitor output mode is selected by the monitor, the monitor device will listen to the sound of which monitor output mode, the virtual channels of the three mixing modes are independent of each other, you can adjust the volume of the same channel of each of the three modes.

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8.2 Monitor Device

The Monitor Device option is used to select the current audio monitoring device. You can assign a corresponding audio output device for each mix mode. After clicking the speaker icon to mute, only the monitoring audio is silenced. The audio from the three mix channels continues to output unaffected.

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● Why can't I use the USB microphone when it is plugged in?

Arena is a mixing software developed by Maono for its own microphones and audio interface products. It allows for convenient adjustment of key parameters such as volume and gain for Maono microphones. Direct connection of third-party USB microphones is not currently supported; compatibility is enabled by connecting the microphone through a Maono G3 audio interface.

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● How do I know if the application is set up successfully?

If the relevant application has been correctly set up, the corresponding virtual channel (e.g., the Music virtual input) will display the level of the current input audio. The top of the channel will show a real-time mixing waveform, and the channel's level meter will also move dynamically with the signal.

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● How to adjust the volume of the appropriate virtual channel?

💡Method 1: You can adjust the input volume of applications in Arena by dragging the slider: Click the channel’s icon to open the Gain adjustment page. When adjusting the volume, first set the gain to an appropriate level, then manually drag the slider to fine-tune the volume.

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💡Method 2: You can adjust the volume on the G3 device by using the channel faders or rotary encoders.

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9. Virtual Channel

Virtual Channel is a virtual audio driver developed for multiple audio inputs in Arena. Virtual Audio Channel can conveniently import audio output from other music software, chat software, online audio, game software, etc. at one time. Here we define 6 names of virtual channels for system, chat, game, music, browser and virtual, but you can set which software use Arena's virtual channels according to your own usage habits.

The output channels: System OutPut (Maono Arena), Game OutPut (Maono Arena), Music OutPut (Maono Arena) can be seen in the Output or Input options on your app's Audio Device Settings page.

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9.1 Expanding and Collapsing Virtual Channels

Click the expand icon for a channel to display all its associated virtual channels. Click the same icon again to collapse them.

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9.2 Virtual Channel Management

a) Delete Channel

In Stream mode, for each virtual channel we provide the function to remove the virtual channel. When a channel is removed, the subsequent virtual channels will automatically move forward to replace the removed channel.

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After removing the chat channel, the panel will be look like the following image:

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b) Add Channel

In live mode, at the end of the virtual channel, we provide the function of adding a virtual channel, through the menu option can be conveniently removed from the channel re-introduced into the interface; shortcut menu highlights the pending options for the device not added to the main interface or virtual virtual channel.

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10. Audio Input Management

We also provide an Audio Input Management window in the main interface menu, which allows for more convenient sorting, removal and addition of virtual channels. There are two ways to open this window.

💡Method 1: Click Options on the top bar to bring up the menu, then select Audio Input Management to open the window.

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💡Method 2: Click on the small tray on the taskbar in the lower right corner of your desktop and right-click on the Arena software icon.

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10.1 Changing the Virtual Channel Order

The Audio Management page allows you to move the position of each virtual channel by dragging.

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10.2 Removing Virtual Channels

Hovering over the device's icon in the Audio Source on the interface section will display the removed icon, and clicking on it will remove the virtual channel from the Arena home page display as well.

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The removed virtual channel will be automatically moved to the VirtualAudio Sources bar below.

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If the removed virtual channel is a microphone channel, it will be automatically moved to the Microphones bar. Any removed virtual channel can be re-added to the home page display by clicking its corresponding icon.

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Clicking the Complete button will save your changes and synchronize the display order and quantity of virtual channels on the main interface.

Clicking the Reset button will revert all past operations on virtual channels back to the default order from when the software was installed.

Clicking the Cancel button will cause all operations performed in the current session on virtual channels to take no effect.

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11. Channel muting

Every virtual channel supports individual muting in all three modes. The hover controls differ by mode: in Stream mode, moving the cursor over a channel reveals buttons for Remove Channel and Mute. In contrast, Headphones and Chat modes only display the Mute option.

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11.1 Removing channels from the home application channel

After clicking the Remove Channel button, the channel will be removed. Its corresponding audio input will disappear from the application channels and will no longer participate in the audio mix.

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11.2 Mute on the home application channel

After clicking the Mute button, the channel will appear grayed out and will be removed from the audio mix. Additionally, dragging the virtual channel's volume fader down to zero will also achieve the muting effect.

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11.3 Mute under Link mode

In Stream mode, if the virtual channels of the other two modes (Headphones and Chat) are linked, then muting a specific virtual channel in Stream mode will simultaneously mute the corresponding channel in both Headphones and Chat modes.

Conversely, if you mute a channel in either Headphones mode or Chat mode, the corresponding channel in Stream mode will not be muted in sync.

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11.4 Mute without Link mode

When linkage is turned off, that virtual channel is muted in live mode, and that channel is not muted together in headset mode or chat mode. Linkage is on by default, which makes it easy for you to access the adjustments for each input. The same principle of applying the linkage icon to scenarios applies to the Quick Route Mute Mute panel as well!

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11.5 Mute in Monitor channel

To mute a mix monitoring channel, click the Monitor Output option in the bottom-left corner of the home page, then click the icons for "Stream", "Headphones", and "Chat" channels respectively. The muting effect is shown in the following illustration. When muted, even if the six virtual channels and the microphone under that monitoring channel continue to output audio, their level meters and the waveform at the top of the channel will stop fluctuating.

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12. Fast Mute Router

During gaming or live streaming, if you need to quickly enable or mute a specific input, you can use the provided Fast Mute Router. The operations on this panel synchronize in real time with the channel mute status. Simply click the corresponding virtual channel to toggle mute on or off with a single click.

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13. Application audio configuration

13.1 Application audio configuration Window

Click "" button on the top left home page to bring up the Application Audio configuration window. For software that follows Microsoft's audio development standards, you only need to check the corresponding software name in the virtual channel within the window to complete the setup.

For example, after selecting Microsoft Edge for the browser virtual channel, audio played through Microsoft Edge will be directed to the browser virtual channel.

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If you usually listen to music on music websites, you can directly select browsers such as Microsoft Edge or Chrome for the Music virtual channel. If you prefer using Spotify, you can quickly set it up in the same way. However, some music applications have independent audio output settings and do not follow Microsoft's audio development standards. For these apps, you need to select Music Output (Maono Arena) as the input audio channel in their respective audio settings.

13.2 Setting the audio output within the music software

Take Tidal as an example, if the “Application Audio Settings” setting is unsuccessful, there will be prompts on how to solve the problem, you can click on “the solution” or click on “Audio Manual Settings” to jump to the “How to set up audio output in music software” help page.

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The virtual channel in the main interface will show the name of the application that has been set up.

14. Three mixing modes for Stream, HeadPhone and Chat

The Arena has three mixing modes: Stream, Headphone and Chat, which correspond to Stream Input (Maono Arena) and Chat Input (Maono Arena) in the microphone options of the live streaming software or chat software, respectively. The "Stream" mode can be used for live streaming platforms, the "Chat" mode can be used for chat software, and the "HeadPhone" mode can be used for personal monitoring. We don't limit the use of a mode to a specific software, for example, the "Chat" mode can also be used for live streaming, "Chat" is just a code word.

How to use these three modes during live streaming

● How do streamers set in Arena to make game teammates and the audience hear different sounds?

For instance, you may want to achieve the following during a live stream:

● The audience can only hear the streamer's voice and game sound effects.

● The conversation between the streamer and teammates is private, not entering the stream.

● The streamer can listen to personal music, without the music being heard by teammates or entering the stream.

Platform Setup：

Live Streaming Platform:

Set the microphone to Stream Input (Maono Arena) and the speakers to Chat Output (Maono Arena). Then, in Arena's Application Audio Configuration, select the corresponding channel.

Gaming Platform:

Set the microphone to Chat Input (Maono Arena) and the speakers to Browser Output (Maono Arena). Then, in Arena's Application Audio Configuration, select the corresponding channel.

(Since the live streaming platform's speakers are already set to Chat Output (Maono Arena), you can choose any channel other than Chat Output (Maono Arena) as the speaker output for other applications—just remember to select the corresponding channel in Arena!)

Arena Setup：

1. In order to keep your teammates' voices out of the live streaming, you need to mute the Chat channel (which is the channel where the game's voices come in) in the "Live" mode.

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2. In order to make sure that your gaming teammates don't hear the live stream, but only your voice, mute all channels other than the microphone and mute the sound panel in the "Chat" mode.

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3. Switch the monitor to "Headphone" mode, you can adjust the volume of any channel to enjoy your own personal world!

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15. Sound Pad

15.1 Sound Effect Playback

We have provided several featured sound effects to play during the live streaming, such as applause, intro sting, cheers, and so on. You can click on the sound effects directly in the Sound Pad of Arena or in the sound effects panel of the G3 device, and the Sound Pad will show the progress of the current sound effect's playback.

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The sound effect pads on the G3 device correspond exactly in position to those on the Arena software’s sound effect panel. Clicking a pad in the Arena panel or pressing the corresponding pad on the G3 hardware will produce exactly the same effect.

15.2 Importing sound effects

You can import some interesting special effect sounds or background music and trigger them when you interact with your teammates to make the interactive experience of your game live stream more exciting and entertaining.

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● How to access the sound editing page

There are two ways to access the sound effect editing page:

● When the sound effect's volume slider is expanded, right-click the corresponding sound effect Pad.

● When the sound effect's volume slider is collapsed, left-click the corresponding sound effect Pad.

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You can import sound effects into a file slot via the click-to-upload method. If a sound effect already occupies that slot, the system will prompt you to confirm replacement.

Newly imported sound effects can have their display color and name modified. Existing sound effects also support customization of their color and name. The color you set will synchronize and be displayed on the G3 device.

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15.3 Exporting sound effects

On the sound effect editing page, click the export icon in the upper-right corner to complete the export process, allowing you to quickly extract the sound effect file.

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15.4 Delete sound effects

On the sound effect editing page, click the "Delete" icon in the upper-right corner to remove the corresponding sound effect. After deletion, the corresponding position in the sound effects module on the home page will become blank. Subsequent sound effects will not automatically shift forward to fill the gap, and this display state will also be synchronized to the G3 device.

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15.5 sound effects page

The sound effects panel displays a maximum of 8 effects per page when the G3 device is not connected, with a total of 9 pages supported. When the G3 device is connected, the panel shows up to 6 effects per page. If you have more effects, you can import them on new pages, with a total of 12 pages supported, allowing for a cumulative total of 72 customizable sound effects.

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16. Shortcut Functions

Arena supports three types of practical shortcuts, designed for sound effects, muting mix output channels, and adjusting the overall volume of mix output channels. They can significantly improve operating efficiency and make usage more convenient.

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16.1 Shortcuts page

On the Arena home page, click Options and select Shortcut to enter the settings page. Here, you can configure the following shortcut groups:

● Shortcuts for triggering SoundPad effects and flipping pages.

● Shortcuts for muting mix output channels.

● Shortcuts for adjusting the master output volume of each mix monitoring channel.

Important: Remember to click the Save button after configuration, otherwise the settings will not take effect.

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16.2 Modify shortcut keys

Click the corresponding location to bring up the edit box and modify the shortcut key directly.

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16.3 Global Shortcuts

Global shortcuts can be freely configured. Check the "Global Shortcuts" button to enable the use of all shortcut keys even when Arena is running in the background. If left unchecked, the shortcuts will only take effect when the Arena application is open and in the foreground.

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16.4 Reset button

After clicking the "Reset" button, all current shortcuts will be restored to their default values.

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17. Firmware Upgrade

Arena supports firmware updates for both the microphone and the G3 device. If an updatable version is detected, a small yellow dot will appear in the upper-right corner of the Options button on the software's home page, serving as an upgrade notification.

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Firmware Updade Page

Open Arena homepage, click Options, select Firmware Updade to bring up the update pop-up window, which will display the information of the devices that need to be updated, and the version number shown in the pop-up window is the current version number of the firmware. When there are more than one device need to be updated, you can choose to update all of them, it will be updated in order.

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If it is already the latest version, the pop-up window will show "All devices have been updated to the latest firmware".

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18. Quit Setup

💡Method 1: Click Options and then select Quit Settings from the menu. Here, you can configure whether the software closes completely or minimizes to the system tray upon exit.

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💡Method 2: Click on the taskbar at the bottom right corner of the desktop, right-click Arena software, a small pop-up window will appear, click on Quit Settings to set up.

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19. Version information

To check the version of the software or enter the official website, you can click Options - About pop-up version information pop-up window. You can see the current version of the software, if you click on the version number will jump to the final agreement page, where you can also view information about other products. You can also view other product information on this page.

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20. Autostart on boot

Click on the taskbar in the lower-right corner of the desktop, right-click on the Arena software, a small pop-up window will appear, turn on the "Autostart on boot" switch.

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