Best free starter pack (DAW+Synths)

[vitocorleone123]

I prefer Waveform Free to Cakewalk. Worth checking out both.

Looks like Full Bucket Synths we’re left off the free synth list?

[halcyon68]

The old Audio Damage plugins are free now too. -> Phosphor (Additive) + Tattoo (Drum Synth)
https://www.audiodamage.com/pages/free-and-legacy

Poise -> Drum Sample Player, still good
https://www.onesmallclue.com/

Ocean Swift Synthesis -> A bunch of additive / hybrid synths
Polyphenom 2: https://oceanswift.net/polyphenom/
Aeolian Meditation: https://oceanswift.net/aeolianmeditation/
Enterprise: https://oceanswift.net/enterprise/

Full Bucket Music WhispAir -> Wavetable synth, has some other great freebies too
https://www.fullbucket.de/music/whispair.html
The scrooo -> Spectral formant synth:
https://www.fullbucket.de/music/scrooo.html

Leslie Sanford Cobalt -> Simple synth with kind of a "lofi" (for the lack of a better word) tone, and some more great freebies
https://www.lesliesanford.com/vst/plugins/

Green Oak Crystal
http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/indexDesktop3.html

SocaLabs 8-bit treats (or something like that) -> SNES / C64 / SEGA synths + a new Organ I haven't tried
http://socalabs.com/

Sampleson CollaB3 -> B3 organ emulation
https://sampleson.com/collab3-free-tonewheel-organ.html

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32 bit synths (since OP mentioned Firebird)

Majken Chimera -> Noise synth
https://www.majken.se/

H.G. Fortune Serenity Pro -> Great for string / choir pads
https://hgfortune.neocities.org/?/synths

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

Cobalt is something still wait exploration,the vocal presets of demo is really impressive

[Jmf1928]

Dexed?

[VELLTONE MUSIC]

Made few changes cause for newbies would be better to start with simple subtractive synths,Dexed for example is pain in the a.s and at all FM,Additive and Granular synthesis won't be very useful for beginners.
My advice is to start with some of mentioned and eventually to try some FM-ish,Additive so on stuff.
Also check free stuff of Spitfire,libraries take hd space
All synths i mention as list are been used in a project,i spend some time programing them and find them useful and quality enough to be used along paid ones.
I remember when start more seriously to deal with sound design back in 2013 complex synths with all these knons was like space shuttle to me hihihihi
Then spend years trying so many free synth,which doesn't produce the sound i want,so this topic should be helpful for people who don't wanna waste time with countless free vst out there,so to find something useful
Cheers
https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/electric-piano

https://www.fullbucket.de/music/fb3100.html

[Psynthax]

You also need surge and helm.

Surge - https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/
Helm - https://tytel.org/helm/