For sure I won't be using the $8 Songwriters MIDI pack from Toontrack
(since it was the 2nd time I bought it, DOH!!!)
 

clintmartin
I have a question for you guys...I did download Hitfilm Express when dubdisciple posted it earlier this year, but I got it mainly for my Daughter. She is a theater and drama major, but she really wants to get into making films. I'll be buying her a camera pretty soon. Do you have any suggestions along the Hitfilm lines for her. She has a I3 PC with Win 8. I know Vegas is popular.
I'm not trying to derail the thread...You can PM me if you have suggestions.

Vegas :). Seriously, of all the NLE's I've tried, it is the easiest. I'm not a video editor by profession so easy counts. Also, it is nice because its workflow and format are the same throughout versions. So you can buy the cheap Vegas Movie Studio 13 for $20-30 (Amazon download and physical) and then later upgrade to Platinum or the full Vegas and everything carries over. Same interface, same workflow, same files, just more capabilities. For that matter someone could create a file in Movie Studio and send it to someone with the real deal for final editing and effects.
 
I hate Sony, they are rat bastards... but Vegas is just good stuff. Same deal with Sound Forge. I own both, and they are great.

Clint,
I don't  mind if a thread naturally takes a detour when it just evolves that way as opposed to someone coming in screaming bizarre unrelated stuff. Picking a video editor is a little easier than a DAW because there are simply less choices. I have used Vegas. In fact it was my main editing program for years. Vegas is very popular among musicians because it works more like a DAW than any other video program. There are pros and cons to this. The pros are it is far more intuitive for beginning editors and the sense of familiarity  (particularly for Acid and Soundforge users) makes it simple to get started. Other pros include the fact that it has historically had more modest computer requirements than competitors. Also very stable. The biggest con is ironically the fact that it looks and feels so much like a DAW that it seems alien to experienced  video editors. Very minor issue though since most get used to it quickly.  Other minor cons (and I stess minor) is that Vegas is somewhat of an also ran in the editing world. Just big enough to be known, and users will rave about it, but almsot no use in Hollywood and only slight use in indie films. Avid still rules Hollywood and Final Cut and Premiere duke it out for the indie crowds now. There have been a couple high profile films cut in Vegas like Paranormal Activity but we are talking exception among exceptions. Not that it matters for the indie producer if it works for him/her. It does matter for someone looking to get hired by others since no position is going to ask for Vegas experience and solely cutting on Vegas will make picking up  the vastly different guis and workflows of other products more likely to be used a little more challenging. I currently use Premiere and it is a great product. The big knock of course is the cloud system. It bugs me, but tutoring alone pays for the cost every month.  I would not say it is necessarily  a better editor than Vegas since I am comfortable with either, but in the working world it is more practical and combines with more advanced software much better. When things like motion graphics  and integrating 3d objects come into play it becomes no contest.  Even the integration with photoshop becomes a factor. I have rarely used the titler in either Premiere or Vegas because Photoshop, After Effects and other 3D programs offer better options.

Also, the hitfilm upgrade removes some of the issues that make the xpress version useless for me and offers a lot of bang for the buck. Good buy for the person not making a career of it but is harder to learn than Vegas.  
 

I think Scoot nails how I feel about string studio.  Everything i do with it sounds like the background of a dystopian film scene just before the heroine is forced to eat her own love baby. Great, if that's  what you are goimg for but I never seem to be goimg for that. I'm  not giving  up on it but it takes a great degree of notjing better to do for me to even insert it.

AAS Ultra-Analog.  Got it for $15.  It has some good sounds, but I thought the GUI was way to small.  I also can't imagine anyone ever having spent the list of $199 on it.
 
Steven Slate Drums for Kontakt 3.  They are actually quite good for a late 80s/90s big hard rock drum sound.  I think I found them awkward to work with if you want to audition different kits.
 
Dan Dean Basses.  Another of the classic $15 no brainers from audiomidi.  I think I got it for their Rickenbackers, but now that I have the NI Rickenbacker, it does not see that much use.   I don't recall being that impressed with the Fenders, but there was perhaps a Guild or Firebird in there which sounded good enough when run through a bass amp sim.
 
EZ Keys Upright.  $29 Black Friday last year.  The upright piano sound is okay, but the whole reason I got that was for the MIDI arranger.
 
As for the AAS String Studio, I regretted missing the no-brainer but ended up getting that based off the Journeys and Entangled Species sets which I got as freebies.  And that it came with the bundle which was on sale at JRR.  
 
 
 

I got some good sample packs from Prodyon's going out of business sale (on several occasions).  If you are interested in electronic music, I recommend you get something from the current sale.

Same boat as you are with MixBus. I've read the manual, watched all the tutorials, figured out a bunch of reasons why I could like to work with it, so I should at least be a lot more familiar with it once I install it on my new computer. 
 
The fact that it doesn't work with a standard Apple mouse serves as the ultimate excuse not to install it or to at least postpone it - all the time.
 
The Toontrack EZX and SDX expansions - it took me a while but I finally realized that it wasn't a matter of finding the right expansion for me. The issue is that they're all "pre-mastered" in such a way that none of them really work for me. I think I finally got that after a deal on the Custom and Vintage SDX.
 
 
Hits: UVI stuff, IK's Neve emulations, a couple of Waves plug-ins.

Add to that list (for me anyway) the Rhino synth.  I got it for 20 bucks in a no-brainer sale back when I first started acquiring software synths about five years ago, and as a result probably gave it no respect whatever.  But the developer has kept it up to date.  It's been 64-bit for some time now and I believe an upgrade just appeared that includes some new filter technology.  The thing is (and no pun intended), this thing is a beast.  Some of the factory presets are most impressive.

dmbaer
Add to that list (for me anyway) the Rhino synth.  I got it for 20 bucks in a no-brainer sale back when I first started acquiring software synths about five years ago, and as a result probably gave it no respect whatever.  But the developer has kept it up to date.  It's been 64-bit for some time now and I believe an upgrade just appeared that includes some new filter technology.  The thing is (and no pun intended), this thing is a beast.  Some of the factory presets are most impressive.

I also had this for about the same time, but never got to use Rhino in an actual project. I ended up selling it last summer.
 
Another one that I don't use is Wusikstation.......there's got to be 15-25 GB's of sounds just collecting dust on my HD. It's actually a good synth/sampler, but I never got attached to it.