One hears such sounds, and what can one say but... (Music Question)

[Sunlight]

I was listening to some music on the showcase thread (awesome music, by the way), and I had this feeling I haven't had in ages. Basically I want to try getting into music. I have some past experience with the piano, but I just want to try hooking up a keyboard to my computer and see what I can come up with.
I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on what kind of keyboard to get, and what kind of software to use? I do realize that the tool doesn't make the craftsman, but I just want to make sure I don't end up buying something completely worthless.

[PatientZero]

Woo, I can field this one, plugging stuff in and making it rock the house is my thing.

Now, first you have to decide what exactly you want the keyboard to do, by that I mean do you want to record the sound directly from the keyboard or do you want to use it as a controller?
If you're just looking to record the sound that simple enough, you've probably got everything you need to take the audio out and plug it into a line-in, this is the simplest option and what you can do with it is basically limited by what keyboard you've got.
At least in the sense that a keyboard that sounds better or has more voices will give you a better recording or more options.

Using it as a controller is more complicated, but frankly, this is probably what you want.
It's a little confusing if you're not familiar with how it works, but basically if you have a keyboard with USB or midi-out (they both do the same thing actually, but you can buy a USB midi cable or adaptor if your keyboard/soundcard doesn't do it natively) you can plug it in and basically turn your computer into a synthesiser, assuming things are configured right any software that accepts a midi input will let you control it right from the keyboard.
The big advantages with this are pretty obvious, first it doesn't matter how god awful the keyboard sounds because you're not using it for that, and second, the options available to you are pretty much limitless provided you've got the right software and a little know-how.

Personally I would recommend getting a USB midi adapter, and basically any keyboard with a midi output, don't pay any attention to how cheap and awful it sounds, the only parts you're interested in are the physical keys and that single output.
Then install a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), this is probably the trickiest bit, there are so many of them out there and they all have their own advantages and disadvantages, and different workflows too.
I suggest trying out a bunch of different ones, always install the demo first to see if it fits with what you want, a lot of them are very expensive.
(Obviously of course I should say now that you should definitely pay the ridiculous price, even though you're not making any money from it and they're fantastically easy to pirate. yes.)

If you need some basic starting points, I used to use Yamaha keyboards (the low-end ones, the kind you might see in a school) they turn up second-hand all the time and usually have the right connectors, and for a DAW I still like FL Studio, it gets mocked all over the place by production snobs and people who think that "more complicated" is the same as "better", but the majority of my work still spends time in there because it's so quick and easy to throw things around.

Beyond that just spend some time playing around, and don't get disheartened that you're not instantly writing triple-platinum records, anyone who does this stuff will tell you when they started they sucked pretty fiercely.

[Sunlight]

Thanks for the advice! I did find some pretty cheap keyboards with USB midi adapters, and I have a friend who is pretty familiar with FL Studio, so I'll definetely look into that!