They need to work with Reaper on a PC, and ideally not be megabucks because this is currently just light/fun use and we're about to bankrupt ourselves on a domestic project (with musical benefits).
That said, I recognise that generally one needs to pay for good tools, so ideally under £50 but potentially up to £100 for something I'll use a lot. If we get into multiple hundreds I'll just start looking at buying an actual keyboard (for which I currently have no space, but that may change) and never getting any utility out of the midi keyboard
Comments
https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-start/
My Trading Feedback | You Bring The Band
Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after youhttps://www.adsrsounds.com/product/software/air-music-tech-xpand2-all-in-one-workstation/?gclid=CjwKCAjwkN6EBhBNEiwADVfyayijeY-WEWQ_DsUKAF4Uoe25mXDJv6rA1srT6hgxesY8oWTnyIn8-hoCMUAQAvD_BwE
It's about £12 at the moment which is a bargain. I have done loads of professional projects using it because it came free with Protools but it's available there in VST or AU
Go to Spitfire Audio and check out the Labs stuff. Their player interface is simple and far preferable to using anything Kontakt based. And definitely get BBC SO Discover.
Cheap synths: totally recommend Synthmaster One. If you want the more DX& sounds, download Dexed. Free, a little complex in the interface, but sounds bloody wonderful.
https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/
Cheap pianos: Addictive Keys.
Make the KVR sales thread your friend.
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=43
You'll get both things recommended above for absolute peanuts on there.
I'd also recommend checking out Pianobook for free stuff - https://www.pianobook.co.uk/
A lot of their instruments do require Kontakt but there are also quite a few for Decent Sampler (https://www.decentsamples.com/) and Plogue Sforzando (https://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando.html) - both of which are free.