rsinger

Can you hear the difference between something like the Quad EQ on its various settings? Can you hear the difference between different EQs? Can you hear the difference between different compressors?

If you can't honestly answer the above questions, don't buy anything yet. Demo all you can to get a start about what you want.

Reaper is a great program for the price. So is Sonar. You will just have to listen and let your ears decide.

Grem

Reaper is a great program for the price. 

Although my main squeeze is SONAR I have to say I am truly impressed with the amount of instructional videos that Reaper offers. If I could just get beyond Kenny Gioa's speaking cadences. And... how he says "here" without even describing where "here" is. I wish someone would edit his videos with a yellow highlighted circle to highlight his "here" comments.
 

bapu
An experienced engineer may own far more plugins than are humanly necessary and thus may actually not be the best person to tell you what you need.

 
Although marked as helpful, this is undoubtedly offensive to some engineers, not so much because they are engineers, but because it's so blatantly prejudicial.  What I posted earlier is probably much closer to the truth.
 

DaveClark
There are so incredibly many options that it's impossible for anyone to give you a good answer with any real assurance.  (Emphasis added.)

The beauty of this forum is we can all have different opinions without arguing.
 
Peace Dave.

I think both are true.  I have far too many plugins.  Many never
even get a passing on, but stay in the collection.

There are 2 factors....the Engineer, and the plugins...
But a brilliant Engineer can take even the crappiest of plugins and produce
a masterpiece...I liken it to the "Tone is in the fingers" argument...
because a brilliant Guitarist can take a cheapo First Act Guitar, 
and create brilliant sounding material with it...

As with all things it's highly subjective.  But, above all, it's the Engineer
(or player) that ultimately is the "Real" ingredient.

One of the problems with buying a DAW bundled with a buncha plugs is that in a lot of cases the plugs aren't usable in other DAWs.  So if you decide to move to another DAW as your experience and the various DAW options grow, you might have to rebuy plugs too.  It can be a pain even if you don't switch DAWs, but need to use a different one some of your projects.
 
If you purchase plugs separately, you can use them in any DAW you might end up using.  It's nice being able to use the same FX regardless of which DAW you happen to be running ATM.

cclarry
I think both are true.  I have far too many plugins.  Many never
even get a passing on, but stay in the collection.

There are 2 factors....the Engineer, and the plugins...
But a brilliant Engineer can take even the crappiest of plugins and produce
a masterpiece...I liken it to the "Tone is in the fingers" argument...
because a brilliant Guitarist can take a cheapo First Act Guitar, 
and create brilliant sounding material with it...

As with all things it's highly subjective.  But, above all, it's the Engineer
(or player) that ultimately is the "Real" ingredient.

An excellent point.  Give a pro engineer a bag of Sm57's and 58's and he'll give you a pro sounding recording.  Give him SONAR with included plugins, or Reaper with the SLATE everything deal, and he'll give you a pro sounding recording.  I guess in the end it's not which package you buy, but how well you use it. 

jude77

cclarry
I think both are true.  I have far too many plugins.  Many never
even get a passing on, but stay in the collection.

There are 2 factors....the Engineer, and the plugins...
But a brilliant Engineer can take even the crappiest of plugins and produce
a masterpiece...I liken it to the "Tone is in the fingers" argument...
because a brilliant Guitarist can take a cheapo First Act Guitar, 
and create brilliant sounding material with it...

As with all things it's highly subjective.  But, above all, it's the Engineer
(or player) that ultimately is the "Real" ingredient.

An excellent point.  Give a pro engineer a bag of Sm57's and 58's and he'll give you a pro sounding recording.  Give him SONAR with included plugins, or Reaper with the SLATE everything deal, and he'll give you a pro sounding recording.  I guess in the end it's not which package you buy, but how well you use it. 

THIS is spot on!

Would have loved chiming in. But then I'm not experienced. Nor an engineer.

Most of the Cakewalk plugins work in other DAWs, including the Cakewalk and Sonitus branded stuff, except for the Overloud and Nomad Factory plugs.  That is locked to Sonar.