Printer friendlywell, over the weekend i spent $200 and bought a midi keyboard interface - the behringer UMX61. here is literally one of my first
experimentations with it...the possibilities of sounds are fairly limitless as it comes with 50 high quality virtual instruments each with many, many settings (as well as hundreds of downloadable instruments (pirated or not). the UMX61 works with all the major recording software - neundo, cubase, ableton, etc.
knowing the concepts of midi but not the many steps in setting it up with this software was tricky...and i'm sure it will take sometime to get used to...my keyboard skills will improve too, as right now i know basic chords.