Utility Belt Plugins?
You know the ones that are so useful as to be indispensable, I'm not talking about compressors, eqs or standard DSP plugs I'm talking 'bout those little gems that make all the difference when it comes to problem solving.
One of my new favourites in this category is Line Up from Nugen Audio which is free for the price of an email address. Available here.
http://www.nugenaudio.com/ What does it do? Basically it introduces a user configurable amount of delay (latency) to a track or a bus primarily to make it easier to 'Line Up' with sample accuracy, mis-aligned stems....useful enough just used for its intended purpose.
The real magic comes though when you use it creatively, stick it on a bus to use it as a very accurate realtime chorus/doubler which sounds fantastic on a snare drum for example.
It has some more tricks up its sleeve giving you options for channel switching and channel independent phase inversion at the bus stage (an option Sonar doesn't give you) and less useful is the ability to add or reduce DC offset.
Voxengo have a similar thing called Latency Delay although I've found that it fights with Sonar's Auto Delay compensation and doesn't include the handy little extras that Line Up has, this is a definite for anybodies tool box!
Got any more useful plugs you care to share?
It's mostly from posts like these that some of my greatest finds have come from so come on spread the word on your secret weapons.