If you had to recommend one freeware plugin, which one would you recommend? Or, if you had to recommend one compressor, and one other plugin of whatever sort. Not as a starting point, but as a complement to someone's collection. EDIT: I heard synthedit could be prone to issues, so I'd like to add the caveat, non synthedit freeware.

I would recommend you JsCompShaper

I'm getting a lot of pleasure from - just a few DBs of gain reduction goes a long way.

I use yohng W1 limiter - a lot. And just started using LiquidSonics Reverberate LE - which I like so far.

+1 for the Liquidsonics (it's also available in the Computer Music magazine collection). I also like the simplicity (and sound!) of the Classic series:

SonEQ: "...is a three band (bass, middle, and treble) digital equalizer with a pre-amp section."

NastyVCS from Variety of Sound. Subtle, clean and musical channel strip. Takes a little work to understand, but the results are excellent. Great thread! Looking forward to trying out others' suggestions.

,the BEST Mid-Range EQ out there, free or otherwise IMHO! :cool:

KeroVee while it's supposed to be an autotune pitch correction plugin i generally don't use it for that. i use it to fatten a vocal (assuming it's aleeady in tune)

ReaJS Is that cheating? :)