Hello, fellow sexers; I hope all are well or are at least coping. I'm certain this question has been asked many times, but I can't think of what search terms are specific enough to find such threads. Apologies if this is tedious or redundant.

I want to set up my laptop to be an all-in-one tool for sketching song ideas, but also for being able to finish out a track if I want. I'm set on the DAW and instruments I want on it, but I want to canvas this community for a list of of the different types of FX to put on it.

I intend to put one of each kind on the machine; I'll work out the specific plugins I want to install, but what I'd like to hear from y'all is simply what tools I'd need to have a well-rounded basic kit that covers all or most of the major kinds of FX an in-the-box laptop studio might need.

I know this question sounds simpler than it is because some tasks 'bleed' into others, there are lots of hybrid tools on the market now, etc., and I know that genre, style, etc., also factor into such a thing, but broadly speaking, what would y'all say is a good list of tools I should have? A surgical EQ, a versatile compressor, a good reverb, etc.

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

IF and that's not a small 'if', you can install them where you want (if not symlinks could help), I'd make two main folders, instruments and effects.
Instruments could have subfolders like drums, basses, guitars, orchestral (maybe even with additional subfolders for strings, brass, percussions), voice/choir (could also be in orchestral), synths.
For effects you could use delays, reverbs, EQs, compressors/limiters, saturation/distortion, amps/preamps (bass and gtr without additional folders), modulation (chorus, phaser, flanger also without...), channel strips, measure.

As a starting point.