I agree with Excalibur and Ultimate S Pro not even being optional. You'll save the money back in the first project if you use them as much as many of us do here.

If you have any issues with low lighting/noise, I highly recommend Neat Video plugin (www.neatvideo.com). It has rescued previously unusable footage for me.

VASST Reelpaks are amazing, quick Color Correction presets. I use them in every project.

Neither US or Excaliber are plugins.
All of Mike Crash's plugins are excellent and free and work.

Most useful extension to Vegas (that isn't a plugin) I've found to be Peachrock's Veggie Toolkit if you do a lot of projects.

Most fun audio plugin is from Oligarc, heck even if you don't use it or cannot fathom out how to use it just the retro faux Soviet bling is great fun.

A set of VU meter plugins can be mighty hand as is a phase correlation audio meter but I use SF for both those tasks.

Bob.

As farss said the mike crash plugs are great,, the one set I use on almost every project is newblue , real nice blur transition stuff

I'd say it depends on what you need! I'm going to purchase cinescore, which IS a plugin to Vegas 8 if you want.

But besides that, (and the recommendation for excal & ultimate s which aren't plugins), I don't have anything else. I have no issues going from app A to B when I need something.

I like Mercalli, Excalibur, Neat Video, AAV Colorlab and Deshaker script that makes use of VDub. I have many others because I like choices.

"Neither US or Excaliber are plugins."

{quote}Other popular terms used to denote extensions are add-ons, add-ins or plugins.{/quote}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_extension

Was there really any need to even mention such a mole-hill???

in vegas there's a difference between a plugin & an extension (even if people don't not the difference). A plugin adds new functionality that wasn't done before. IE a new transition, effect, Boris, cinescore, etc. Vegas isn't capable of those, period. a small piece of software that supplements a larger program (as a browser)

An extension takes what's already there & (as the word says) extends it's capabilities. It doesn't ADD something that wasn't there before, it enhances what already exists. IE EX & US aren't NEEDED, everything can be done in vegas w/o them. but they make the features much more usable for people. an enlargement in scope or operation

Wikipedia is misleading there.

My answer would very depending on what you want to produce

Don’t forget the free plugin pac with shatter etc

Some plugs interaction with Vegas aren’t so good for example with Boris something’s work and some don’t so often one uses it as a stand alone and render direct from there AND the learning curve requires a lot of effort and practice

For retail ads, promo’s, POS plasma stuff and run of the mill content then Heroglyph from Prodad for text is great, good value for money, easy to use, what many folks don’t realise that it can also be used as a transition medium overlay as a mask..awsome transition fx

And generally speaking Vitascene from Prodad is great for transitions and fx Fairly easy to use, if you get into the compositing headspace it can produce some pretty cool stuff with very little effort,for example add this onto mask transition above and it’s a whole new dimension of fx and transitions

Look through New blue bundles fx and transitions choose wisely some of the stuff wouldn’t be usable in conventional content but it has some that are great for example Smears and blurs as already mentioned. and some good transitions as well as audio cleaners

Bluff titler not a plugin but maybe someone can script this so that it can be. Bluff is a nifty 3d app, but they did themselves in on there sample shows….man they are horrendous but believe me this is an amazing app which is capable of good stuff

I would include the very useful Noise Reduction 2.0 audio plugin. It includes Vinyl Restoration, Noise Reduction, Clipped Peak Restoration, and Click and Crackle Removal.

John

iZotope RX is useful.
I could no more live without Excalibur than I could do without ShuttlePRO or my mouse.
For me it's an extension, ...of my brain.
Still find Magic Bullet Movie Looks HD useful, but should upgrade.
Think I got it as a freebee.
Very occassionally use Newblue.