I record sounds outside (bells, animals, crazies arguing in the street, etc.) and superimpose them, at home, on parasites produced by an analog radio. Or anything else. The main thing is to work with primitive, analog material at some point in the creative process. This doesn't prevent me from using VSTs or samples found on the net at another point in the process. I also have a small, portable, digital Tascam, which I used to record percussion in the forest with a friend, using whatever we could get our hands on (wood branches, scrap metal, maybe glass too, I don't know). The result sounds pretty bad, but I use it anyway, even if it means adding a lot of effects, because there's an "authenticity" to it that I hold dear.
