Looking at MIDI keyboards

Do yourself the favour and spend the extra $100 on the Impulse. It's well worth it as the keys feel much better than the ones on the LaunchKey. I absolutely love my Novation boards (though I tend to not use AutoMap much at all)

M-Audio Oxygen might be good for you as it did well in a couple of tests and it is less than 300 $.

TerraSin
Do yourself the favour and spend the extra $100 on the Impulse. It's well worth it as the keys feel much better than the ones on the LaunchKey. I absolutely love my Novation boards (though I tend to not use AutoMap much at all)

Can you please describe what you mean by feels better? and what does a good keyboard feel like to you?

I'm honestly thinking about just seeing what happens for christmas and buying everything on my list then.
I dont like going out of my budget so if I have the money I'll see about the impulse. I was going to try and get a digital piano from costco but they took the ones I wanted out of circulation.
The extra dollars does seem questionable but I really just need something decent and to experiment on if push comes to shove with my budget.

nektar impact lx61 is also sonar ready...and inexpensive. Nice build, local company...
see here

 
The Roland A-800 PRO is 400$
 
I thought it was discontinued, but it's apparently made a comeback.
 

You have to be careful about online reviews.  Nobody hardly ever goes on line to praise a products, but everybody and the horse that rode them in will make complaints if something happens to break.  You will mostly find the latter.
 
I originally had to get 2 Novation 25 Le keys (they were blowing them out at the time) before I got one that the keys weren't coming lose.  It lasted about 7 years.  I replaced it w/ an Impulse 25.  I had to send it back for warranty work.  That is the thing, most problems will show up in the first month or so.  If you are worried, you can always get an extended warranty.
 
@

@DragonBlood
 
I bought and both recorded and gigged with a Yamaha YPG-235 keyboard, for $219, and it worked extremely well for me for almost 5 years of constant use.  It has decent feel, 76 notes, and about 400 sounds (about half are usable - rest are dogs barking and machine guns and whatevers).  I never worried about trying to map any buttons to ACT, so just used it really as a midi trigger for sounds from soft-synths, and for that, for ME, it fit the bill nicely.
 
I also JUST bought about a month ago, an M-Audio Keystation 88, for $129, brand new, that I use for piano parts mostly.  It is an 88-note midi controller with only volume, pitch bend, and mod wheel, but again, I didn't need to map anything for ACT for it - I just control things with my mouse in Sonar and then simply record with it.  So far, it has been fabulous.  Decent enough action, and full 88 keys.
 
My other controller is a much better one - Axiom Pro 61.  It has a bunch of faders and knobs and such, (which I still don't bother with ACT for), but more importantly for me is that it has a fantastic and solid action, and is quite rugged.  I usually use this controller for synth leads, as it just feels GREAT to play on it.  (this one cost me something like $450-$500, if I recall correctly)
 
I hope that gives you some additional info to ponder over, in your decision making process.
 
Bob Bone
 

Looks like a good choice and I read one review that had positive things to say about it.