My main tools are:
BIAB
Cakewalk
Halion/Sonic which is GM compatible synth with very deep features and good size sound bank
Kontakt for Guitars and keys and MIDI based drums
vArranger for some of MIDI "bones"
Korg Triton Extreme VST (They made 1:1 software version of the classic)
Cognitone Sparks for chord and scale exploration.
and now playing around with my new toy EZKeys.

example... well don't judge hard, I am not a pro by any means. Here is one of the latest:
https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=758650#Post758650