Feel free to discuss your DAW of choice, favorite plugins, wrong opinions, or post resource dumps like I'm about to do

Impulse responses:
If you want a quick explanation of what these are for, check this video out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=716Ho1E-7Io You've probably got a convolution reverb plugin included with your DAW that you can use, if not here's a free one: https://www.siraudiotools.com/sir1.php
Doesn't have to just be used for reverb, it can be used to effectively model speakers and EQ settings, too

I recorded some impulse responses of my guitar amp at a few different angles and positions, I was too lazy to document which file is which position and such. The samples are all a bit long too, but if it's bothersome enough you could always cut out a bit of the end. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XgbaO_WqmO9QGjSZ2yWGKESGUTeg67mY/view?usp=sharing

This website has a lot of nice IRs, I use the "Small Rooms" collection all the time: https://www.adventurekid.se/akrt/free-reverb-impulse-responses/

Effects:
Free guitar amp/cab simulator: https://www.voxengo.com/product/boogex/
This is a collection of effects that have been around basically forever, there's too many for me to list here but the site has a list and some short descriptions. http://mda.smartelectronix.com/
Pitch-shifter that I use to make my guitar sound like a bass since I don't have one. Doesn't sound the best but considering it's real-time and free I won't complain. https://aegeanmusic.com/pitchproof-specs

Instruments:
Yamaha keyboard VST. Originally made as a software demo for a hardware keyboard that was similar, but was later discontinued so it wouldn't compete with their hardware products. http://veg.by/en/projects/syxg50/
Sounds of a toy keyboard I recorded a few years ago (I should really re-record this at some point): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oPzEZq7-Vsj2LDxwcf4Um0ENm2mPfymD/view?usp=sharing
Virtual combo organ that models the Farfisa Mini Deluxe Compact: http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?id=1365

Hope these come in useful to someone, if I think of anything else to add I'll probably just make another reply

I'm by no means a music producer or anything, but I do primarily use my DAW and some plugins for guitar sounds.

I've been using REAPER based off of the suggestion of my step brother, and it seems to get the job done. I have no idea what I'm doing with it so I can't really comment on it.

I've tried out a few amp sims and cab emulation but I haven't found anything better than BIAS amp to use. It doesn't sound too bad at all.

I haven't fucked with recording shit in a long while, but back when I was, I was mainly using REAPER and trying out different amp sims as well. I've only tried BIAS and Guitar Rig, both seem fine but BIAS does seem to be slightly better. I do wish to get back into recording, but the only interface I have has fucked up line pre's that overamplify the input to unusable levels so i need to probably get a direct box so I can test the mic pre's (or just buy a new interface outright tbh), and I also need an XLR mic of some variety.

Also, I kind of want to acquire a macbook at some point to take advantage of the supposedly lower latency and higher reliability audio drivers available and maybe try some of the DAW options there, but that will come at some later time...

I can attest to the audio latency being a lot better by default on OS X compared to Windows. Only way to get to he about the same on Windows is to either use ASIO4ALL (which restricts your audio output to the DAW only) or using a driver that comes with an audioninrerface, and that really only lets you output or input from the interface. ASIO4ALL lets you input and output to different sound devices though so that really comes in handy. FL Studio comes with a driver that does some sort of black magic to convert the ASIO API to WASAPI (Or something like that, I've probably got the details wrong.) It lets you use other programs so you can, for example, watch a video in your browser or be in a discord call while you do stuff in your daw, but the latency's a bit higher (Around 60 ms vs 12 - 20 ms) and you can't input or output to multiple devices. As far as I'm concerned, it's a good enough middle ground.

I've heard the Focusrite 2i2 is pretty good, never used it myself though. I got lucky and found the interface I use at a thrift store.

I started using FL Studio 'cause I saw a deadmau5 organ tutorial that used it like five years ago and it's been good enough that I haven't needed to switch to another DAW since then, plus the free lifetime updates are really nice. They released an OS X version recently, haven't had a chance to actually check it out but it's an option now, at least.

I don't use stuff like guitar rig very often, usually I just load in my own effects and put a convolution plugin with an impulse response for a cabinet at the end.