Sonic Farm Tantra, User Manual, Page: 2 / 12

Dear Audio Professional,
Thank you for purchasing the
Tantra . We hope it will deliver exceptional performance for many years into the future.
Please take the time to read this manual. It describes Tantra ’s design philosophy as well as its most important functions.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
At the heels of the success of our 2DI4 Pentode direct box, a conversation arose to build a full-blown bass preamp with extensive functions
and an optional high power module capable of fulfilling the needs of today’s professional bass player community.
The idea came from a fellow pro-audio designer and a lifelong pro bass player Michael Arnopol. He thought that the 2DI4, as good as it
sounded, needed to be taken to the next level. After some initial resistance and a lot of brainstorming between Boris, Michael and me, we
warmed up to the idea, and over the course of almost a year, came up with the design you are now seeing in front of you, the
Tantra .
Apart from the unchanged pentode input section borrowed from the 2DI4, the preamp has an overdrive section, centered around another
pentode, followed by several solid-state powered sections: a high-pass filter, a 5-band EQ, a compressor and a 2-part harmonic generator.
There are effects loop points (send and return, balanced or unbalanced) that facilitate adding external effect units to the signal chain.
Both the DI and line outputs are still there, just like with the 2DI4, with some important functions added.
There is a place to house and connect an optional ICE1000ASP class D power module as well. This module was suggested to us by the bass
community as the one with the best sound, power, impact and clarity amongst all of the available ones today.
All of the sections were optimized for use with a bass instrument, although the unit can be successfully used with other types of signals as
well.
The idea was to essentially have a 2DI4 along with all these other sound processors that would have “no sound of its own” and thus not take
away from the definition and richness that the 2DI4 is known for. We hope we have fully succeeded in accomplishing that. In addition, all
sections can be bypassed, and when they are, one essentially gets the barebone 2DI4 sound.
We hope you will put this preamp through it’s paces both in your studio and at your live gigs and that it will give you many years of fulfilling
performance!