I didn't mention Antress because although they are good they aren't as good as bootsy's plugs, and once again I am pretty sure they are built in SE which is why the high cpu hit.

The other thing that left a bad taste in my mouth with these plugs is that I tried the 32 bit in x64 and they completely stuffed up my machine.

If they have ported to 64 I'll eventually give them another try (1 at a time) but I'll be backing up for sure.

I didn't mention Antress because although they are good they aren't as good as bootsy's plugs, and once again I am pretty sure they are built in SE which is why the high cpu hit.

I fully agree. I don't think they are good enough that one should be willing to put up with their bad behavior.

Audiomax

bitflipper


A1, as you happily download gobs of free plugins, bear in mind that a great many - perhaps a majority - free VSTs are of poor quality, unstable or horribly inefficient. 99% of all SONAR crashes I have experienced over the years have been caused by free plugins. I don't mean to dampen your enthusiasm, just be forewarned.

Here are a few quality freebies:
Kjaerhus Classic Chorus
Jaroen Breebaart Smash Pro (not free, but extremely cheap)
Luxonix SFX-1310
Voxengo SPAN (a must-have)
SIR Convolution Reverb (only if you don't have Perfect Space)

+1.  Bitflipper's comments sum it up. There's only a handful of freeware plugins that can be used with confidence. The Classic Chorus and Voxengo Boogex are two. Many sound great but when it comes to a complex mix they are either too inefficient or unstable.
 
Cheers,
Max. 

Voxengo Boogex

I have gotten some really nice bass recordings using the Boogex. It takes a little tweaking - but basically rolling off the high and low ends with a decent ampex cabinet sample and you are good to go...

Really like the Classic Chorus (Kjaerhus) and Span is always on standby. Someone posted earlier about the plugs that are included with Sonar  - and I want to second that. We really have little need for new eq's, reverbs, compressors, etc. with all that cakewalk provides. I have deleted many freebies in the last year. Example - Bionic delay caused me to Sonar shutdown/reboot one too many times.

One gripe mixed with praise is in regard to cakewalk's DX / fx series plugs. They need to port them over to VST versions. You would not need very many additional plugs as we move into the future with those in the kit. Currently we can use the fx_series plugs in 64bit. It is a waste in my opinion. The fxdelay, fxchorus and fxreverb are very good indeed.

i agree with bitflipper... i'm like an expensive hooker... nothing gets in my box without a complete test....lol

Fret Wizz

But most free plugins are 32 bit and since I've gone totally 64 bit  I've stopped using 32 plug-ins,
in SONAR, altogether.

I've done the same.  The exception is Camel Crusher, and only because it's that good (sound quality and stability wise).
 
 
 
 
 

Ichiro Toda-san's Synth 1 is not exactly new, but I continue to find it very characterful.  And speaking of characterful, Urs Heckmann's Triple Cheese is beyond compare (although like Guinness you probably love it or hate it).  Voxengo SPAN (linked elsewhere in this thread) is way more intelligible than the analyser that comes standard in Sonar and way better than the Blue Cat equivalent also.  SPAN is the only plug-in that is installed by my Normal template.

Afterthought - anything that comes with presets by the late Tim Conrardy is worth a listen, in my view.  He was a programming genius.

I don't use much in the way of "free" stuff,  but the Kjaerhaus Classic plugins series is great, and this reverb (link below) plus SIR get my vote in the free reverb department:
 
 
http://www.anwida.com/product.asp?pid=7
 
 
Also, the Genesis synth was free at one point, then it was on a CM disk.
Sounds great, but not sure if it still available though. 
 

uhhhhhhh..............   delay lama

kidding.... its fun / funny thats all

Bionic Delay. sounds great when it starts feeding back.