Last house I shared had an upright piano which I used to enjoy plinking around on. No great shakes but it’s quite fun making some stuff up on a keyboard and I was thinking about buying a small Casio type thing to play around on.

What brands are good these days and how much should I spend?

ta

yamaha clavinova – rocking rooster

What about one that you can use with your computer? I dunno about PCs, as much, but Macs come with Garageband, which is bloody amazing; not far off pro-level software. Even basic PC software should give you a pretty decent synthesiser set up.