I have the latest version of Live, but occasionally i revert waaaayyy back to Cubase VST32 (circa 199?) to restrict a lot of the excessiveness u can get lost in when writing tracks. For me lately, EVERY session turns into some crazy rabbit hole of sound design work, all to get me a signature sound and tweak my creativity. But really, I need the basics. Sometimes I want to go back to Live 5 or 6 as well, just to get my creativity a jump, because Cubase has a lot of weird workflow issues for me, even though it was the DAW I started with, I've used Live so long and I really have to say Live is just so much simpler to lay down an idea. Good luck with your sweet find!

As for freebies, just go to your fav website of popular plugs, Melda, U-He, and Native Instruments, theres literally tons of them, and you'll find so many plugs you will get stuck. My suggestion, find A synth (yes just one), find A compressor (yes just one), and AN EQ (again one) maybe a delay or reverb or flanger.. basic stuff. Now get to work. Restrict yourself, to learn the VSTS u have, forget about DJ XX uses X vst, and he's great. I promise you, PROMISE you, 90% of what you hear can be done with basic synths and basic effects. Just learn them like a blind man learns his house, find the knowledge and creativity.