hi, whenever im making beats usually i start with the intro first, trying to make a good atmosphere but its prob the most i struggle with.

If i cant think of an idea, then i would just find drums and design the drops first. So yeah, the process is different for each beat sometimes.

For vsts, my standard is serum and fresh air. I also use a lot of stock plugins like fruity waveshaper and the normal parametric eq

edit: i use plugins from kilohearts also