hey everyone. looking to gift an 88 key keyboard to a complete beginner who is a tween. not looking to spend more than $300. what do u guys recommend? do they really have to jump straight to a yamaha or roland if they're a beginner? thanks!

I'm looking for a keyboard. I think I want an 88 key semi-weighted board. This seems like a unicorn. So I turn to you for help in finding such a beast or convincing me it's not really what I want.

I recently bought a novation launchkey 61 as my first keyboard. I will fully admit that I suck and don't yet really know what I'm doing. However I already find that I dislike the feel of the keyboard. It just feels cheap and plasticy.

Why semi-weighted?

I talked myself out of a weighted keyboard after reading on here that it really doesn't work all that well for non-piano things. I think I agree to that and can see the spring back latency being annoying. (And needing the hammer to reset if you don't fully come off the key). I've played around on an Arturia astrolab and I do like the solid feel of the keys. For reference I was a bass guitarist in another life and man I feel like I want some heft in my instrument.

Why 88?

Maybe it's an ego thing but I want to have it all at my disposal as my skill level increases and I've already found the current layout to be annoying when noodling around.

Budget: Under $1k you could maybe convince me all the way up to $2k but I'm gonna feel real dumb if I'm not using this thing in 6 months.

So…

Where the hell are these keyboards? 88 keys seem to almost always be hammer weighted. I see the novation SL MKIII which looks great but is max 61 keys (also can anyone compare it to the astro lab I can't seem to find any place where I could play one). So if I convince myself that 61 is fine perhaps this is a good choice.

I've played the Roland Juno 61 which while unweighted is at least a nice synth pad feel. But the 88 is full hammer action.

I like all the controls and hooks into DAWs that the novation has (at least in theory) but those seem like something I can replace with a stand alone controller. When what I really want is a nice keybed, probably with aftertouch.

Convince me I'm wrong. Tell me to buy an electric piano with a USB out and hook in a controller. Tell me to buy a $10k Moog, grow a huge beard, and start dropping liters of lsd.

Anyway, uh, thanks.

Edit: thanks for all the responses everyone. They've been great and have given me a lot to go on.