i have Waves Gold... if u can get it for under $200 it's a pretty good deal and has some plugs that compliment SPLAT.  Platinum would be nice but out of my budget.

You can always pick and choose from Waves plugins since they often have weekly or weekend specials that cost starting at $29 per plugin usually marked down from a much higher amount.  I've been taking advantage of their specials and over the last couple of years or so have picked up quite a few USEFUL plugins.  Their quality is quite high.  Get on their email list and check every week.  Sometimes they have a one-day special as well as buy one and get another plug thrown in for free.
 
Regards

this is good advice:

digimidi
You can always pick and choose from Waves plugins since they often have weekly or weekend specials that cost starting at $29 per plugin usually marked down from a much higher amount.  I've been taking advantage of their specials and over the last couple of years or so have picked up quite a few USEFUL plugins.  Their quality is quite high.  Get on their email list and check every week.  Sometimes they have a one-day special as well as buy one and get another plug thrown in for free.
 

I wouldn't go for a bundle. WAVES has got excellent plugs, but you need to pick what you really need. Some of the best have been mentioned above (IR1, NLS, ...) but whether they fit your requirements you need to decide yourself.
 
The ones I bought with some smaller bundle I hardly use, the ones carefully I selected for a reason see heavy use.
 
Don't forget you can demo each one to see if you really need it!

to be honest, Waves is putting loads of useless crap in cheaper bundles, basically the Waves plugins I really enjoyed were part of Mercury bundle, so get the Mercury demo, determine what plugins you like and then - either buy that huge 7600$ pack, OR (subscribe the newsletter and) keep an eye on (weekend) deals and just get individual plugins!
btw I suggest checking DMG Audio and FabFilter plugins ;)
 

I just de-installed a big waves bundle  -- the endless checks for licensing, requiring internet access each time, were driving me nuts and I didn't use much if any of it on a regular basis.    Big waste of money, imo.

There is no need for internet based licensing at all if you put the license on a standard USB stick. On the whole, I really like their licensing scheme. One time I forgot my USB stick at home and I could activate online (once per year limit unless you later retrieve the original USB license). Pretty slick.

H-Delay, Puigtech EQs, L2, IR-L (with its useful 5GB impulse library), Maxxbass and the Renaissance stuff are staples of almost every project I have and I have plenty of FabFilter and other plugs too. It's true there are some in there that I wouldn't really use. But there are also some in there that are quite unique (Maxxbass and Doppler for instance). Whether it's worth the money is up to you.

Sanderxpander
There is no need for internet based licensing at all if you put the license on a standard USB stick. On the whole, I really like their licensing scheme. One time I forgot my USB stick at home and I could activate online (once per year limit unless you later retrieve the original USB license). Pretty slick.

If only EVERYONE would understand this.

williamcopper
I just de-installed a big waves bundle  -- the endless checks for licensing, requiring internet access each time, were driving me nuts and I didn't use much if any of it on a regular basis.    Big waste of money, imo.

You must be doing something wrong. You can have local licenses on your HDD or USB stick.

Thank you all for the info!!!

Always possible I'm doing something wrong, but with the licenses on my hard disk, Sonar Platinum startup (even before selecting a saved project to open) went from instant to 30-60 seconds of wait time.   I'm certain it was waves because it's gone now.