Hi, I'm trying to make a guitar distortion patch. I've checked out some of the patches posted on the forum. I'm quite new to Pd.

When subtracting one signal from another, what is actually happening (both theoretically and in Puredata)?

I've tried to use a table to shape the wave based on an explaination on the forum, but I couldn't make it work? Anyone who care to explain on a noobish level?

Thanks in advance!

pd -> help -> browser -> puredata/3.audio examples/B03.

or try: overdrive~ 5

In DSP land a waveform at any location in time will be a value between -1 and +1.

so if you're subtracting one from another, the maths is literally that. so if at one instance in time the waveform A happens to be -8.3 and waveform B happens to be +0.8 the subtraction would give you -1.62 and would clip the signal because it's over 1.

if you added the two sources together, however, the value would be -0.04

Thanks for the help!