The only VST's that come to mind that I would really like (and not
 having had much exposure to more recent LADSPA's or LV2) are the
 awesome
 Ambience reverb and a full midi soft synth I used to use
 (HyperCanvas),
 as I don't have a hardware midi module and soundfonts never seemed to
 quite get it to my ear.
 thanks for the input.
 Russell 
 Talking about softsynths, have you tried the rather delightful
 ZynAddSubFX, or, as appears on here, yoshimi (which is a very stable
 derivative)? 
 
While I have played with it before, my use of the term 'softsynth' is
somewhat ambiguous here. Hypercanvas and Virtual Sound Canvas
( Edirol / Roland ) are GM and GM2 standard 128 full instrument sets.
Unless Zyn has gained that ability and I missed it?
Russell