Good starter midi controller / keyboard?

Hi; I would like to try my hand at creating some music of my own, but lack a midi controller / keyboard. I have diddled with Reaper's built-in virtual keyboard and some virtual instruments, but it is difficult, and not a lot of fun trying to play music using only my computer's mouse and keyboard. I have done a bit of research at sites like Sweetwater.com, and found that I can buy a midi controller / keyboard for $99 and up. I am looking to spend not more then about $150 for now. There seem to be many offerings in this price range; mostly 49 keys, but I also see some 25 key boards. I don't think I would need more than 49 keys - unless I wanted to map some of the keys to different instruments - I'm not sure how easy or hard it is to do this, but I would imagine that Reaper would allow me to do pretty much anything I want. But as a newbie, I don't think I will be trying to play more than one instrument at a time. I will just record midi tracks one at a time for each instrument I want to have in my composition. So I guess the question is which product would you recommend, and whether 49 keys is sufficient - or should I go up to 61 keys? Thing is, 49 keys is easier to handle, considering I want to have this keyboard on my lap, and don't have the room for a larger one. OTOH, I probably don't want only 25 keys, because that would require me to be switching octaves more often. So I hope I'm not totally off-base here, but that's why I am posting this query. Thanks. FW

As a starter, 49 keys is almost certainly OK. Which ones are you looking at? Will you need a MIDI keyboard or a MIDI keyboard/controller (with knobs / sliders that can be mapped to control your plug-ins, track volumes etc). Can you clarify what you mean by "to map some of the keys to different instruments"?

buy used and avoid akai (bad support, history of hardware flaws in multiple products). novation launch products are pretty good even though they haven't given us the ability to edit the launchpad pro's lower analog read note-on threshold.

Thanks for the good info guys; I was thinking about buying used, but I don't feel comfortable with face to face transactions like Craig's list. I prefer Ebay. That said, I realize that I won't get the advantage of a 'hands-on' demo. I don't really have a problem with that. I have purchased a lot of different types (not musical) equipment without getting to play with it first, and have not been disappointed. That's one reason I come into forums like this one. I know that I can trust those who own the equipment to provide me with the info I need to make a good choice.

Pretty much all MIDI keyboards are junk since the good keybeds go to synths. Just the buy the cheapest used one you can find with the amount of keys you need. Then you'll learn what you really need, what crap you will tolerate, etc., and find the keyboard you're willing to live with.

I agree with the modern keyboard-trashing. Keybeds are awful. I'm struggling with half-working Axiom 49 1st gen. Its a deep controller but it works half of the time and some keys are velocity 127 always. People say its one of the nicest keybeds around. But I'm really salivating on impact lx+ 49 . It seems like a perfect combination with Reaper as it has deeper integration than most other gear. For laying sketches it seems perferct

I have a Nektar Impact GX61 here (without the knobs) - the keys seems fine to me (but I am not a piano player).