Moving into a smaller place soon and I have to leave my upright piano at home, obviously.  What's a good keyboard for ~$500 bucks?

Korg Trinity V3

A well built and designed keyboard. Brushed aluminum casing, touch screen, sounds sampled at  48 khz, nice 16 track sequencer, and if you add the hard disc recording option, you can record any instrument into the keyboard...giving you 16 keyboard tracks and 4 audio tracks. Add vocals, guitars, etc with this option. Of course with track bouncing, the audio tracks are basically unlimited. The joystick moves in 4 directions where some keyboards only have 2 or three-way motion. This gives so much realism to sounds like guitar (bending notes for solos), flutes..can add breath levels, etc. The joystick is also assignable. A ribbon controller is under the joystick which also adds depth to voices. Slide your finger across to increase or reduce volume, or assign effects to it. I LOVE this keyboard. The V3 version has slightly better solo voices, and may cost you a little more than the std Trinity. There are 61, 76, and 88 key versions, with the 88 key having weighted keys.

I'm actually considering selling my 88 key in case your interested, but my asking price will be somewhere between $1200-$1400, I have the hard disc recording option added to mine, and it's a V3. I also have all the manuals, discs and original box...but if you're only willing to spend around $500, then the 61 key is what you need. It's much more portable than an 88 key. I highly recommend this keyboard. Check out this link for much more in depth specs:

http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?A_PROD_NO=TRINITY

That post was longer than an e-mail. With a tagged URL and a sale pitch, to boot!

Heaven forbid anybody try to sell anything on this website.

Are you looking for a weighted keyboard? If so, I can't help you.

However, if all you're looking for is a cheap, durable MIDI controller to hook up to your computer, I can get you a good deal on one of E-MU's. ;)

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ … sku=706284

Your price: 109.99 plus tax and shipping.

I get the feeling that you're looking for something a little more substantial though, something with embedded sounds?

I have a Korg Karma (bahahaha) (it actually lives on my desk at work currently) and it's the cat's ass.  It's way out of your price range, though.  I agree with Mr. S. - Korg stuff is awesome.

Stay away from M-Audio.  Their keyboards are cheap-feeling from my experience, and the "action" on the keys is... way too mushy. 

You're probably best off getting a weighted keyboard, or at least semi-weighted, but other than some ancient Ensoniq stuff, I've never really played around with any. :\

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Damn you Amber! I've wanted a Karma for a while. That synth has got some serious sounds. I loved all the knobs for sound modeling. Kind of reminds me of my old Juno 106, with the versatility of real-time sound modeling. Anyone that's really into the type of music that can be produced with a Karma should check out the band Ozric Tentacles. I've always wanted a nice synth for playing dance tunes. I remember test driving that baby and wishing I had an extra grand to throw down on one. You use it at work? Have any samples of you playing?

You ever played around with the Ensoniq VFX-SD? That's another nice keyboard I wish I'd never sold. It had some great piano sounds and the sequencer was one of the simplest I've ever used.

I've always like your song First Snow. Good stuff. Have you been working on anything recently?

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Unfortunately, I'm not going to have the money right now to buy anything, but your suggestions are all welcome!  I don't know anything about sequencing or sampling.  Basically, I'm just a broke pianist and want something moderately cheap, but good, and similar to playing on a piano, so probably at least a semi-weighted.