More and more people are creating content, and because of the rise in creators over the last few years it's meant even more great pieces of tech are coming to market to meet the demand.
The G1 Neo from Maono is an audio interface/mixer that promises to make that jump from USB microphone users to XLR in a nice easy to use way.
**The G1 Neo was reviewed using hardware provided and sent to us by Maono, but in no way influenced the review.
This review should have come out May 17, but due to external reasons it was delayed - however, it's meant I've been using the G1 Neo as my daily audio interface for the last few months.
The G1 Neo comes in two colours; black or white. We were sent the white version, and I was very nicely surprised when I opened the box and saw how clean and premium the white version actually looks.
The front of the G1 Neo sports two faders. one for microphone volume and one for audio volume, whilst underneath these are two small buttons for muting either mic and/or music.
Alongside each fader is an LED indicator strip that lights up to show the level you're at when you move the fader (green > yellow > orange > red) and will light up to the levels of any input as well.
The strip works fine, but I wouldn't soley rely on it - if you're using something like OBS, keep an eye on the clipping in there to monitor your levels, and adjust where needed.
Above the faders are two additional buttons, a 48V phantom power on/off for microphones that need it and a bluetooth on/off for connecting external sound inputs wirelessly.
Slightly up and to the right you'll find three control knobs; microphone gain, reverb and headphone volume. The last one seems an odd addition, as it performs the same job as the fader, and as far as I could work out there's no way to differentiate the two in order to control say, Discord chat with one and game audio with the other.
Whilst the body is plastic, it doesn't feel inherently cheap, there is a decent amount of heft to the 1.21 pounds device considering its small size, and the faders and control knobs feels really good to use.
Underneath these are five labelled buttons and four blank custom buttons. The noise reducer provides reasonable background noise removal, although I'd reccomend recording in a better suited enviroment rather than rely on digital manipulation - both levels work well, but they do effect the quality of your voice.
I've never been keen on the rubbery buttons on these kinds of devices, but they do the job, but a little more resistance to them would make the presses feel more premium.
The voice changer gives us four different voice effects (male, female, robot, baby). They're all really fun additions, that in reality are just changing the pitch of your voice, but some good laughs can be had when talking to your friends on Discord.
Direct monitor allows you to hear your own voice while speaking into the mic, whilst Sidechain will automatically lower the volume of background music when you start to speak. This isn't a feature we would typically use, as we put music in post, but those streaming on Twitch may find it very useful.
RGB lights up the ring that goes around the G1 Neo as well as the buttons - I'm not a huge fan of RGB, but I quite like the violet colour I picked, as it really makes the white pop - There are 12 RGB modes to choose from which you can cycle through by pressing the button, however holding down the RGB button will also turn it off.
The blank custom buttons allow you to record up to 20 seconds of custom audio to use. You simply hold the button down until it flashes white, then it will record whatever is coming through the inputs. You can then press these to play during your stream or team chats on Discord.
Around the back of the G1 Neo you'll find the inputs to get you up and running:
Female XLR
USB-C (power)
USB-C
3.5mm Speakers
3.5mm Headphones
3.5mm AUX In
Headset Mic
Power on/off button
If you are connecting the device to your PC/Laptop/Mac then you'll simply need to connect the supplied USB-C to USB-A cable to the input with the laptop/phone icon; if you're connecting the G1 Neo to a phone or tablet, then you'll also need to supply power via the USB-C Power port (5V).
Setup was very simple, and Windows 11 picked up the G1 Neo instantly, and Adobe Auditon and OBS both made the selections simple.
Sound is surprisngly great, Maono have always managed to achieve great sounding devices - whether that's microphones or interfaces/mixers - at a really compelling price.
I typically use a Behringer U-PHORIA UMC204HD audio interface, which I've used daily for a number of years - and at the moment there's only one thing that's really making me keep it as my go-to interface over the G1 Neo - and that's the two XLR inputs (plus the ability to plug in a guitar).
The G1 Neo's Pro-preamp keeps up with the excellent MIDAS preamps found on the UMC204HD, and whilst the all metal body of the UMC204HD keeps it feeling more premium, the G1 Neo does look more flashy than the black slab from Behringer.
Maybe a future G2 Neo will feature two XLR inputs to further push the interface towards the podcast market - I still don't understand the reasons companies like Maono and FiFine agressively market products as "gamer", when they function across the board - but hey, maybe that's just me.
Overall, the G1 Neo is a fantastic audio interface/mixer. It looks great, it feels more premium than it actually is, and it works with very minimal setup needed. It's very well designed, and takes up little room on your desk, and offers an excellent way to move from USB to XLR microphones.
Comments