There is such a huge volume of new great stuff out there, I know I am missing something cool! Let me know your favorite obscure or underrated plugin or VI. I am doing retro/indie rock with some psychedelic sauce.

T-Racks 'Classic EQ'... always seem to jump to it for getting vocals to sit right in the mix.

Boz Digtal Labs - Transgressor 1/2

The DDMF 6144 is under appreciated, one of the best software EQs regardless of price IMO.

EZ KEYS and the KILOHEARTZ PLUG-INS,

I don't think Sinevibes gets the recognition it deserves. AU only, but super creative plugins with multiple layers of filters, distortion, phasers, flangers, delays, repeaters, etc. Very inexpensive. Their plugins will always get me out of a rut when I am trying to make a synth or any instrument dynamic and interesting. I have purchased all thirty or so of their plugins.
Atom, Drift and Zap are free.
Atom (again, free!) is indispensable for me. It has:
- Multi-mode filter with five types and –12/24/48 dB/octave slope steepness.
- Dual modulators with eight waveforms, per-cycle chaos function and shape lag on/off switch.
- Advanced transport sync algorithm with support for tempo and time signature automation.
- Extensive use of OS X Core Animation and Accelerate frameworks for hardware-accelerated graphics and audio processing.
Check it out!
https://www.sinevibes.com/atom/

(I believe you should be able to use them in Patchwork if you are on Mac but use a DAW that doesn't support AU, such as Pro Tools.)

Oh yeah, another:
Acon Digital.
AMAZING reverb (Verberate 2), EQ, and dynamics plugins. Very affordable. If you buy their Premium Version of Acoustica audio editor, you get the whole lot of mastering and restoration plugins, usable in the editor or as 32 and 64-bit VST, VST3 or AAX for both Windows and OS X or as AU plug-ins for OS X.
Also amazingly affordable.
https://acondigital.com

The entire Overloud GEM series.
XILS Synths.

Goodhertz - WowControl. Not only tape emulation but also it can make really creative effrcts.

iZotope Trash 2. Often on sale for $29. You get two dynamic eq's, including envelope and LFO control of all filter parameters; a multiband distortion module with two independent stages including a very flexible waveshaper; a convolver for IRs; a very versatile multiband dynamics module with compressor and gate, including soft/hard knee, peak/RMS detection and sidechain eq; a flexible delay module, and a limiter. And you can set the signal flow across modules any way you like, including parallel processing options. Many presets are wild and the name is going to give you a serious case of expectation bias, but it can be as subtle as you want. To be honest if I was forced to keep just one plugin for mixing, this would be in my top 5 for sure.

probably the thing I use for handling the most kinds of situations is Goodhertz Midside 3.
there’s usually a handful of incredibly simple things I need to do and they were always things which were pretty easy to do on a desk. but in a DAW those same things can become extremely boring and time consuming to do and you need this that or the other thing, and then some other thing, just in order to do them. often that can just be to query some aspect of a signal or sometimes to get a signal into some particular condition. I find I can do many of those different things or just one of those things, in the same place. it could be just setting the signal to mono, or setting the low end to mono and then panning the mid and filtering or balancing the sides. really just a handful of bread and butter tasks, but ones which this thing makes utterly simple.

ddmf 6144
best for me, and I tried almost everything

Stillwell Major Tom compressor. A one-trick pony, and it's a fabulous trick.

Waves Meta Filter. Its a fat resonant filter, digital delay, distortion, bit crusher with LFO, step sequencer, and envelope follower simultaneous modulation. It makes everything it touches sound great.

Zebrify from U-He, which comes with famous Zebra synth. Basically, it is like having a modular synth with envelope follower for totally mangle the sound with all kind of modulated filters, delays, ringmods...

Old, but awesome:

Metric Halo ChannelStrip 3
McDSP 6050
McDSP FilterBank

New stuff:

TBProAudio CS-5501
AnalogObsession KONSOL

DDMF TheStrip is great too.

Edit: Crave EQ of course, but seems it's picking up a bit more traction now...

Crave DSP - Crave EQ
Wilkinson Audio - DeBleeder
Boz Digital Labs - Manic Compressor
Xenakios - PaulXStretch

& as mentioned above the Sinevibes Stuff & Zebrify

What is it that you like in particular? Sonics? UI?

Verberate is nice...especially for rooms...

Klanghelm
Weiss
Cytomic

oh purely the sound, def not the UI. ya it just sounds incredible, super smooth, musical filters, even when cranked to max boost/cut, which i actually do more often than i would with another eq bc it always sounds good. it's also incredibly flexible bc it has 5 bands plus high pass and lowpass filters, so there aren't a lot of scenarios where it can't do the job. if i could only have one eq this would be it.

Have you compared it to DMG Equilibrium?

Agree with DDMF 6144. Such a good sound. Surprised about its lack of popularity.

Most underrated plugin personally is probably Unfiltered Audio Triad. It is intimidating to use..

I have not compared them, but I probably wouldn't bother. I think of analog EQ emulations and FabFilter style EQs as totally different animals, if I want to use one I know I don't want the other.

Another vote for DDMF 6144. And a vote for an OG , the Bomb Factory 1176.. still my favorite most used compressor that rarely gets any love.

for fast high-quality equalization(without visual impact) that takes seconds and gives a stunning result and does not degrade the sound, no doubt 6144 win.

" if i could only have one eq this would be it."

Maybe I just don't look at enough threads on compression, but I rarely see anyone mention Klanghelm DC8C.

I got version 2 a while ago, but forgot to reinstall it when switching my setup. Fast forward to version 3 being available and reinstalling... wow what a great compressor for such a low price. The update that translates the Easy mode settings into Expert mode is very nice as well -- start in Easy and get it roughly where you want, then go into Expert to fine tune.

PSP42. Sometimes use 20+ instances per mix. May not have the exact sound as the 42 but close enough and functions like the hardware unit. Very few seem to talk about it anymore. I have Echoboy and a few others but most of the time I go for the 42. Easy on the CPU. Gotta love that 3 over 16 setting.

Jünger Audio Level Magic

What kind of applications is this suited for?