You could do worse than cutting your teeth on Sonar's suite of included plugins.

By the time you learn how and when to use them all, you'll be ready to explore 3rd party ones. 
Sometimes having too many choices will create more problems than solutions.
Of course if you suffer with a lot of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) or PUS (Plugin Users Syndrome) you'll never have enough.

"You could do worse than cutting your teeth on Sonar's suite of included plugins.
By the time you learn how and when to use them all, you'll be ready to explore 3rd party ones.
Sometimes having too many choices will create more problems than solutions."

i could not say it better

What am I looking for? Oh hell, I really don't know. I just see all these advertisements for slick looking plug ins that do this and that.  The reality of it is, it will be a long time before I have anything (personal music) I would ever try to put up on some sharing/pay site.

Sooooo easy to get captivated by all the toys.
 
 
EDIT TO ADD
Ok, I just thought of something here.  I would like plug-ins that help me visualize what is going on, not so much in EQ, but rather things like compression.  I get what compression is and does, however, I can't always "HEAR" what it's doing.  Example; I've purchased a few video sets from Groove3. And the guy who is presenting will add a compressor, make some adjustments in his video while explaining.  He can hear a difference but I struggle to hear it.  When he makes large adjustments, I can hear it, but sometimes the adjustments being made seem so slight that the only way to know if it's actually doing anything is to trust what is being visually displayed in the compressors indicators.
 
So, things that deal with compression and limiting, the more visual indication of what's happening to the audio the better. 
 
Maybe this is my punishment for being a stoner back in the 80s listening to bands like : Van Halen, RUSH, Scorpions, Def Leppard, RATT, Tesla... you get the idea.  God bless the 80s!
 
 

Hi redbarchetta,

If you're looking to hear as well as see what a plug is doing look at fab filter. Absolutely the best interfaces out there for visual feedback, and they're great sounding plugs as well.

Good luck
Dean

RedB - go get this http://www.voxengo.com/product/span

This is great for finding specific areas that need attention ...and showing the results when you make changes.

I had some spikes in a swirly keyboard pad and I knew it was somewhere in the 100-300Hz range, but broad EQing and compression was dulling it up too much.

I checked the track with Span and it showed the problem.
I ended up putting 3 EQs (Waves Q10 - single band Q1) each with a with a narrow notch (-5 db @ 110, 220 and 243Hz).
I had to use 3 separate instances because when adding a 2nd band that close, it influenced the freqs to the sides and dipped areas (increased the Q) that didn't need EQing - particularly in the 220 and 243 Hz area. 

Wouldn't have been able to figure that out w/o seeing it visually.

Mess with the edit button to create presets that show the details at certain frequencies.
You'll be able to see the differences between the stock Stereo Mastering vs the Lo-Freq Inspection presets.

Very helpful tool. 


Oh yeah, make sure Span is last in the chain so you can see the results of comp & EQ changes.
Not admitting that I might have done that before, but ummmmm ...I may have 

Two Pro Channel module add ons that seem to be universally well liked and add a lot to a project are the PC2A Leveling Compressor and the Concrete Limiter so keep an eye on the monthly specials section of the Cakewalk Store. They go on sale every so often. You may also want to take a look at the Pro Channel bundle which includes those two modules as well as some other. I own the PC2A and it makes things sound VERY nice. Still waiting for my monetary situation to improve before snagging the Concrete Limiter.

Cheers. 

A decent EQ that also shows spectrum (and a bunch of other handy tools, including a limiter) can be had for free http://www.meldaproductio...?id=MFreeEffectsBundle Should you choose to purchase a license, it is on sale for less than $30 for the bundle through the end of the month.

BTW from your posts I get the impression you are into more vintage rock. I find the PC2A is great for making things sound warmer like those older recordings. It's modeled on a vintage compressor that apparently used to live in a lot of those older studios.

Here is a broader link for a bunch of Voxengo freebies:

http://www.voxengo.com/group/free-vst-plugins/

There are quite a few there - most are in 32 AND 64-bit versions.

Bob Bone

And here is a link for downloading a bunch of Antress plugins:

http://antress.blogspot.com/

Bob Bone