Starting out, any keyboards recommended?

[Ijon Tichy]

So I'm going to be messing around with module music, learning how to make not-terrible music. Haven't really figured out exactly how, but hey.

Any keyboards recommended for this in particular, or is OpenMPT better off without a keyboard for some reason? The cost cap is around $400, since I don't know if I'll stick with this, and if I do I can always upgrade.

As an aside, good samples where?

[Saga Musix]

$400 is plenty of you are going to stick to a simply MIDI keyboard. Depending on how much room you have, you may want of course go for something in the 61-key range. Maybe go also for something with semi-weighted keys (dunno if "real" weighted keys are available in that price range), just for the nicer feel.
Good samples: Everywhere on the internet. Look in the "top picks" menu item in OpenMPT's help menu.

[FreezeFlame(Alchemy)]

As an aside, good samples where?

Try:
http://tracker.modarchive.org/

http://sagamusix.de/en//samples/

[Ijon Tichy]

Well, I'm looking at this right now. Seems to be alright, but I'd like to hear opinions from people who have the slightest clue what they're doing. Is it going to bite me in the ass somehow, or should I go with it?

[LPChip]

The biggest question is: what do you want to do with it? I have a Yamaha PSR-740, and these keyboards (besides that they're really nice) are meant as performance keyboards. As in: they're ment to be used on stage to play music for an audience. Sure they can be used for different objectives as well. But again, I ask what your goal is, because this might be overkill.

Do you just want to sample the instrument, do you want to play on it without needing a computer? Do you only want to control OpenMPT with it? Do you want OpenMPT to control the keyboard?

[Ijon Tichy]

Well, yeah, part of it is so that I can control OpenMPT with it, but I and some other guys have been throwing around the idea of doing a band on the Internet as a random hobby, and if I get good enough, being able to play at events would be really cool.

Also, most keyboards I saw were at or above $200 (there were some really small ones at $100, but eeehhhhhh), so 'overkill' at that price range might be a good thing.

[nervesagent]

Basicly I just went and bought me a Creative Prodikeys...
https://www.google.nl/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=895&q=creative+prodikeys&oq=creative+prodikeys&gs_l=img.3..0i19l2.391.3191.0.3395.18.16.0.0.0.0.355.1673.8j3j2j1.14.0.ekp...0...1.1.27.img..7.11.1027.QoiXC7T57Nw&safe=active

I'm not much of a piano player and hardly use it... but I guess it works for jamming in some chords.

[Saga Musix]

Best would of course be to visit a local music store and try out a few keyboards that you like (and ignore the demo songs while doing so).