USB keyboards (the plinky-plonky kind)

[BeardFaceMan]

I'm after some type of keyboard I can plug into the ol' PC and dick around with, nothing special or fancy as I don't even know how to play keys so it would have to be something I could learn on. I know there's 88 keys on a piano but how many should I be looking at for a starter USB keyboard? Like how many keys do I need in order to play basic stuff?

[NoSleep]

If you want to learn, then 61 keys would be minimum (and even then you might feel the pinch). There are USB keyboards with less keys, but they are more for programmers needing to punch in bass lines, melodies and chords one at a time into their DAW.

[Morrison Lard]

Get a budget M-Audio keystation 49, or similar.
Cheap and easily accessible if you're a beginner, you could probably pick one up for <£40 on ebay.
The keys are actually a decent weight on the 49e. No knobs for twiddling though, if that's your thang.

I disagree with NoSleep on the "61key-minimum".
More keys can look daunting when you start out,
and if you're a total novice you're not gonna be firing up and down the octaves like Les Dawson for a long while.

Plug it in and away you go.
There's an absolute ton of decent free VSTs out there too.

[NoSleep]

What's daunting about 61 keys compared to 49? There's only 12 notes in an octave, but if you have a truncated keyboard it can be tedious finding where the range of a particular sound works best (high, low, middle). Plus you can muck around with two hands if you want to learn how to play a bit (49 is more suited to a one handed approach).

[Neomod]

When you say you want to learn, do you mean proper piano with both hands an all or just for messing about?

I started on a proper piano but these days use a micro korg to play keyboard tracks. The smaller keyboards are a bit fiddly so I would go for a full size (or close to) keyboard to start.

In fact I think I might get one of those M-Audios.

[BeardFaceMan]

Those M-Audios look just the job. I just want to learn the basics, I have no desire to learn proper piano or anything, I'll probably just end up picking out melodies or basslines on it.