I'm new to the digital recording world, and as you know, I'm lost in a sea of information about plugins. I never realized how MANY of them there are.

My question is simple. If you were stuck with a basic DAW, and a hand full of plugins, which ones would you take with you?

So you're stuck on a desert island that happens to have a magic room that sounds great with anything, a fully stocked mic closet, and a 2 channel recorder with no pres.

What 2 channel pre would you choose, and why?
(I'm looking for a 2 channel pre, and thought this would be an entertaining way of asking.)

What I'm looking at:

Hi, I stumbled on to this forum for the first time today, so this will be my first post here. Nine months from now I will be relocating 2800 miles away. I am currently upgrading my Pro-sumer grade home studio to a more Pro-fessional standard.

I am currently in the market for a "high-endcompressor." Right now, I record everything into my DAW with no compression and do everything in the mix. I'd like to be able to get hotter signals into my workstation and also add a little bit of color before mixdown. This compressor would have to be one that would work well on many sources ranging from drums to vocals.