I use Cakewalk now, and can say Fabfilter has some great stuff for sure.

As long as we're talking plugins though, I like some free ones like Proxim (helps get a better representation of a mic' d amp and air of already recorded tracks), AradazM (maximizer that is better for your Eleven Rack guitar tracks than expensive ones that sometimes bring out the noise). FerricTDS is a great free tape sim/saturater/maximizer also.

I'm still into a lot of the PSPAudioware stuff and Waves has a great new reverb called H-Reverb, I am demo-ing. Trying to make impulses of stuff I have demo'd but always nice to get the full Fabfilter or Waves plugins. The SSL4000 plugin worked great on drums and bass, I wish there was a cheap alternative, but definitely check that out if you can.

Once you get into saturation, you'll really like the Fabfilter Satufn plugin. I used that on my Summer Jam recording on individual tracks and it just has this analog/tube quality to it but you have to play around with it for a bit to understand what it does in your mix.

That's kind of the biggest thing you'll find is that you'll learn more by having a full session of drums, bass, guitars and you want things to sit just right without a bunch of EQing, compression, and overly done post FX stuff.