Hey Sakuraburst!
I use Ableton so I usually start off with experimenting with some timestretching/warping in complex pro mode. I love to use a multiband distortion plugin called Subvert for mangling the sound/saturating it. To add movement, I stack a bunch of autofilters and automate their frequencies. I put glue compressors here and there to squish things and pronounce different movements. Additionally, I like to add a super short decay Ableton reverb with a small room size and the spin near the top right...adds some really interesting movement. Also, I regularly add extremely short decays with a medium feedback to add a metallic quality.
Depending on the sample, I may import it as a waveform inside of Serum and play around with that.

Here's a three clips of what my process was like on this instance of an ambient growl: https://soundcloud.com/safeko/sets/the-bug-sound-design/s-r0As5
First clip = timestretched sample from an FM patch I made in Serum.
Second clip = reversed and lightly processed
Third clip = Subvert effect patch dry/wet automated, vocoder dry/wet automated, saturation drive automated, reverb decay and dry/wet automated.

I've made some atmospheric pad sounds by recording a chord on the guitar then reversing it and adding tons of reverb. I like the idea of side-chaining the reverb with the original and recording that to fill it out, will definitely try that next time!

Here's a fun thing I've been messing with lately. Audio Included.
I work mainly in effects on bounced audio, so resampling is my thing.

Here's the original audio: (excuse Vocaroo's awful compression. If you download the mp3 there may be less. If it's too bad, I can host it on SC)
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1dUf23IyFP6

It's just a supersaw with reverb / slight distortion / Flanger, it was something I had rendered a while ago.
I liked the sound the bigger reverb gave the tone, but I had already rendered it without the tail. It made me think I could turn it into a pretty gnarly justice / electro bass.

I ran the audio through this chain:



And got this:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1m3e1EjgXQD

The Saturation is essentially distorting the audio file into all mids and highs, and pushing it into a really clip-y sound, but I like that shit so whatever. I'm cutting the lows because I can add that back in later from the original file, or a MIDI sub.

On a side note: Xfer's Dimension Expander is awesome for adding a really cool depth to sampled audio / synth lines.



It's essentially splits the audio into 4 copies, flips the phases of two and then runs those two at a slight delay, making the sound way wider and also giving it a really cool cutoff at the end / chorus effect that you can distort and get some really choppy, SebastiAn-y sounds out of. I also added a quick delay really high passed reverb to emphasize the main sound cutting off.

I used that resampled audio, pitched the files into a bass pattern, then re-rendered that with a sub layered underneath. This is what I got out of it.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1ByegIoLnxV


And with drums.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1CDzuCqPnM5

I like that the bass line stays really defined, but you couldn't get that clean cutoff without rendering out to audio and working from there. Pushing things into audio and then affecting them lends itself to having those really gritty, but hard cutoff baselines that are super defined. Let me know if you guys do anything similar. I design almost exclusively in audio, and sometimes feel crazy for doing so.

To add some variation to a looped sample, try creating loads of channels with different effects and processing, and drop the sample into different channels at different times

this can also be done using Effectrix by Sugarbytes or Glitch 2 by Illformed. i'm sure there's other FX sequencers as well. i just gave this a shot and it was kinda fun doing it manually haha cool idea

I don't really have a specific thing I do each time I resample, I like using super weird plugins in ways they should not be used, when creating new weird sounds. do some weird sawbass in serum, fl pitchdown automation, put a hysteresis or tantra on dat bitch (weird plugins for the lulz), render everything, into harmor it goes, play with the phaser and unison, now we render again, and the circus stars again....... then all of a sudden it sounds like a botnek drop lead or some shit.

It depends on the sample but I like to bounce audio to a bunch of different octaves, with staccato and several legato one shots (I will warp / stretch it as well as letting it go cleanly). Then I will throw some audio effect racks on there and play with it until I get a sound that I like.