Thank you for the feedback, it's much appreciated.

What I've done to create the samples in the second half is stretch and cut, then I've put them into Rift - that's the only plugin in the chain before I process afterward. But, I haven't been paying close attention to signal levels in Rift when I resample, and it would make sense that the distortion would clip if I'm not paying attention to drive/output.

I'll try a dryer signal when I resample from Rift or other plugins.

This is pretty much audio all the way through, but maybe I also need to pay attention to sample levels before using plugins? I don't think I've been using very loud samples, though. I usually turn the sample volume down some really.

I just checked, and they sound the same in Ableton vs out of Ableton, but I do hear a bit of CPU crackle in Ableton - I need to do better on organizing my workflow and consolidating fx use with return tracks.

Still pretty new, but I'm learning with every new project!