I recently upgraded to Sonar Platinum, and there's a long list of plug ins that come with it.  Some are current, some are a bit long in the tooth. 
 
Since I am coming back to SONAR after some years away, I am wondering about a good plug in set.  I have some old VST's that I haven't loaded yet because perhaps newer plugs are superior.
 
So here's the question/challenge. 
 
What are your "go to" Cakewalk plug ins?  Do they compare well with 3rd party options?
What 3rd party plug ins compliment the Cake offerings?  Please suggest only those that work without added hardware (no UA, etc.)   
 
It seems that Cake has compressors and EQ's handled well, but what about other FX?

The Pro channel stuff is really good.  The ProChannel EQ is all you really need for most EQ jobs.  The 1176 comp is good, while the SSL buss comp is excellent.  Both come standard w/ pro.  The CA2A or whatever they call their optical comp is excellent too - as good as they come for software emus.
 
Breeverb is the best algorithmic reverb SONAR has ever offered, while REmatrix is better than Perfect Space.  If you can swing the full REmatrix during one of their sales, that is a great reverb unit.
 
Effects are mostly sonitus, which are nice, but there are some real winners in the Nomad Audio collection of FX like the oil can echo etc.

I'm also just returning to Sonar 7 after many years and found that my plugins are missing.  In particular I'm looking for a good reverb plugin.  I thought those came with Cakewalk.  So where can I find those?
 

For vocals, and I've only recently just worked this out, the VC-64 channel strip, which is long in the tooth...but is really good.  I think it's an Avalon emulator.  I'm not sure if it's part of the current set, but I still have it from Sonar 6 I think.  But because it's really slow, you can slam vocals.
 
At the moment for EQ's I use 4 types.  I use Waves Helios for acoustic guitars, drums, bass, electronic instruments...almost everything in a mix.  I also have Waves Pultec, which I use in a mix for a different flavour, or for instruments not recorded very well.  I use it mainly on buss's, drums after compression, effects, verbs.  It's really great.  At some point I will get some Abbey Road stuff as well.  For mastering and everything else, the Pro Channel EQ is the bomb.  For mastering, set the EQ curve to pure, this is the mastering setting, and it just works.  I use the Pro Channel EQ in a mix these days for non-consequential tracks too.
 
Compression, I use Waves Fairchild, for drums, bass, guitars.  Great compressor.  I also have H-Comp by Waves which is my mastering compressor these days.  I use the Pro Channel buss compressor for a bit of limiting, and for a different flavour.  Same with the Pro Channel mix compressor.
 
For time based effects, I use Waves Doubler for double tracking, Guitar Rig 4 for most of my delays, and guitar amp stuff.  Perfect Space, and the Pro Channel Verbs, although I will have update these at some point.
 
Finally, I really love the Pro Channel Tape and Console emulator...rather than reach for a compressor for bass and drums...try using this combination.  I also have Waves Kramer Master Tape, which I use on masters.
 
Oh and finally Pro Channel Concrete Limiter, if you know how to use it...is the bomb.
 
Cheers Ben 

The supplied synths and samplers are good and will serve well once they have been studied and understood. DimPro as a sample player and Session Drummer 3 both are based on the sfz format and you can put together any sounds you like with them. 
 
I have the NI FM8 for DX7 sounds.
 
The Concrete Limiter is very good, I got it when it was offered in a deal.
 
For mastering I have sprung for Ozone 7. Still have to learn how to use it properly.
 
Only in the reverb department have I never found any plug I like. I still use my outboard gear for that.

I think the question is a bit too broad. There are many plug-ins I "go to" when I need them, but you may not need them to begin with or you may be happy with the Cake offerings. For example I use a bunch of different amp sims rather than TH2, FabFilter Pro Q2 rather than the QuadCurve EQ and Waves H-Delay rather than the Sonitus one. Is there anything more specific you feel you are missing, or want to "upgrade"? 

Wait, what? You don't want to buy every plugin? What's wrong with you! That's the fun of pro audio: Spending all your money buying new toys that do the same thing as the toys you already have.
 
:D
 
In all seriousness, what plugins do I use that are non-Cakewalk? Bearing in mind that I am just a hobbyist, not a pro and never have been or will be:
 
--IK Stealth Limiter. Best loudness maximizer EVAR. It really does seem to just make things louder, not change the tonal quality at all. I've tried a lot of limiters, and it is by far my favourite.
 
--Waves IR-1/IR-L. I'm a fan of real space reverbs and I'm not that happy with what comes with Sonar. Waves has a large collection of good impulses and their stuff is fairly easy to use. Over all I likes. If you want to get it note that they see to put it on sale about 10 times a year (seriously) so maybe wait for that.
 
--Eventide Ultrachannel. I got this for free, they were offering it for nothing, you just had to ask, for a time so I said why not. Turns out to be quite useful. It is a bunch of plugins in one, nothing stellar, but has good presets and I'm not skilled so being able to pick a preset for a given thing is useful. That said there's no way I'd buy it for the asking price of $250. I figured since they were giving it away it would be something cheap but it is really pricey. It's an EQ, two kinds of compressor, delays, and transformer emulator.
 
--Melda Spectral Dynamics. A "sound goodizer". It is actually a stupidly powerful massively multi-band dynamic compressor, but I am not nearly smart enough to actually do much with it. However, putting it on a final mix and messing with a couple of parameters I find it can improve sound detail with very little effort. Bitflipper on this forum wrote a good article about using it that I can't find right now.
 
--Dirac Live. Not sure if this really counts, since it isn't a plugin and I'm not actually running it on my computer, but on outboard hardware (you can get it for your computer though) but it is what I use to correct my speakers/room. It is far and away the best room correction I've ever encountered and just sounds amazing. Much better than Audyssey (which is the technology in IK's ARC). You can get it as a host based program from Dirac themselves, or as outboard hardware from MiniDSP, Emotiva or Datasat. It's expensive as all getout though.

Cakes pro-channel is great... all the modules are worth it.
I have over 600 plugs...so ... my go to, beyond prochannel?
FabFilter timeless 2 delay (I have a couple dozen but this is generally IT)
Ozone 7 advanced... heck, just get the production bundle all awesome stuff 
FabFilter pro-Q2 and their deesser (Actually, I have all mix/master/effect FF stuff and I love it all
EWQL's Spaces (sure, I have full re-matrix and Bre-verb and a dozen or two others but... Space's just works)
IK's Stealth Limiter (sure, I have Fabs and a zillion others but, at the end of the line...when I'm not just printing for transfer to Ozone,  Stealth is wealth) I have virtually all IK T-Racks and it's gathering dust also...
 
If I could recover the funds spent on all others, I would do it in a sec... heck, 25c on the dollar... or less! I'd be RICH for awhile!

Pro channel modules are good - I use the EQ most of the time. If you have Platinum Breverb Cakewalk is included. With a little tweaking it is a nice, usable reverb. Third party wise I am a big fan of the fabfilter bundle, Waves SSL compressors and the Lexicon pcm native reverbs, though all three are pricey. Valhalla dsp reverbs are great value for a more budget alternative.

Hi. I mainly use ProChannel as my go to plugins, even though I have some Waves and UAD plugins. For delay, I use the VocalStrip or the PercussionStrip most of the time. I think both Breverb and ReMatrix are good. 
All the best.